Reclaiming Siena

Lacey Tuxedo Top.
Click to zoom out.I have the weekend off (yay!) and the weather is gloriously misty and chilly, so I've been devoting myself to cleaning up the loose ends in my knitting so that I can move on to some fun new spring projects that I've been swatching for. I ripped out the faulty seam in Moxie's Man Hood, and then seamed the modified raglans for one full shoulder last night. M is really pressing for me to finish since his birthday was two weeks ago. My disinterest in seaming, cuffing and hooding black cotton stockinette is apparently palpable, and he takes this as a reflection of my life priorities. Clearly, I do not love him enough! Sigh.

Once those modified raglan seams get going, they are rather fun little things, but getting up the interest takes some work. I should probably be seaming rather than blogging, as we speak.

Unraveling the Prairie Tunic.I could not work exclusively on that black swath of stockinette, however. The other project I got started on yesterday was the "silk top with lacey center panel and frilly edges" from the latest Rebecca Magazine (No. 33). (Where do they come up with these fabulously creative names for their projects, anyway?) In order to do that, though, I had to reclaim the yarn from the prairie tunic, which gave me such a hard time with its lace panel last summer. (I hope there is not a pattern here!)

Curly hanks prior to washing.I often leave a project that I intend to abandon whole until I plan to reclaim the yarn, because I feel that there may be information contained in what I've knit already that I will need again. The prairie tunic was no exception, and retaining it did pay off, because the gauge for the two projects was exactly the same, and with the needles still dangling from the prairie tunic it wasn't hard to remember which size I had used.

A view of the front.
Lovely, no?I purchased 5 skeins of Jaeger Siena for the prairie tunic, and had only knit less than two, so I was able to start the knitting phase without having to reclaim any yarn, but since it was the weekend and I had time, I decided to get ahead of things and do the reclaiming, too. Here, in a nutshell, are the steps for yarn reclamation if a knitted object has been sitting around for a bit or if a yarn has particularly strong memory for curl:

1. Frog all the knitting by skeining directly onto a ballwinder.

2. Hank all the skeins on a niddy-noddy (or, in my case, a niddy-nosty (scroll down) - love it!) (If you don't have a ballwinder or a niddy-noddy you may want to collapse these two steps into one by frogging directly into a hank, wrapping the yarn around your knees or the back of a chair.)

3. Fill sink with water (hot if cotton as here, tepid if wool) and a dash of wool wash.

4. Gently immerse the skeins for at least half an hour, a bit longer if wool, less is okay if cotton.

5. Gently squeeze water out of the hanks and place in the washer on the spin cycle to remove water (cotton or wool).

6. Snap hanks and thwack violently against a pole or other hard surface to spank any remaining curl out of them (cotton or wool - really).

7. Place unweighted hanks over hangers to dry outside in the shade.

Curly hanks taking a soak.After doing all of that, I left the two hanks to dry, and set out to knit my "silk top with lacey center panel and frilly edges" which we will now call my Lacey Tuxedo Top. The top is made in 100% silk in the original version, but since I have met my yarn-purchasing quota for a while and still do not seem to have a 100% silk of that weight, I am using Jaeger Siena, a 100% cotton. Jaeger Siena is a lot like Rowan Cotton Glace, so it works up in a crisp fashion rather than having the drape of a silk. I think the silk version would be insanely soft, drapey and luxurious, but I think that a crisper cotton version should work well, too. It will be less dressy - kind of a "playclothes" version of the top, which is what the lifestyle of the Hoolia requires.

Straight hanks,
post-thwacking.The original pattern calls for US 5 needles, but I made gauge in the cotton on US 2's. The pattern starts with 13 cm of stockinette in the round which is a bit daunting, but I cast on and knit a round. It was a long-ass round. So I had another thought - this is what knitting machines are made for! I knit two pieces flat on the machine and let them sit overnight to settle into their true gauge. This morning I measured gauge again to see if I was on in my guess for the correct machine tension (tension 3, carriage 2) and to seam the pieces together. Looks like it! From here on out, I'll knit everything by hand. Voila! I'm on my way to having a Lacy Tuxedo Top! Oh, little knitter, how I love you...

Addendum to Prairie Tunic Shooz

Britt wrote to let me know that her lace section turned out to be about 28 sts to 4.5 inches, which would give the correct measurements noted in the pattern for the Prairie Tunic. Others have written to let me know that their measurements for the lace section are closer to mine. So, this means that the pattern is completely fine as written, but you will need to swatch the lace to be sure that your lace gauge is what it should be before beginning.

This was a pretty interesting revelation for me, because I had always assumed (and many patterns out there also assume) that if your Stst gauge is on, your patterned stitch gauge will be as well. It makes sense that this might not always be the case and that some knitters might yo a little more tightly or loosely than others. Since this is the first pattern I've knit using a large swath of stockinette next to a lace panel, I hadn't noticed it before. So, it's kind of a cool learning experience.

Since I can't change needle sizes in the middle of a row (well, I suppose I could with Denise Interchangeables or Knitpicks Options, but I'm not going to!), I'm going to have to knock out some stitches - either stockinette or lace. I'll probably knock out some stockinette, as the lace is more fun, but we'll see. I also may swatch Blue Garter's closed lace pattern option as I kind of like the idea of a little less flash. While I'm at it, I'm going to consider some shaping and other tweaks as well. Ultimately, though, I think this is one that will get knit next year. It's time to move on to wool, while I still can!

Shooz

I have been spinning up a storm, and reading to prepare for sewing like there's no tomorrow. In part, this is because I'm loving my wheel and excited about the sewing machine, but I've also had each and every one of my WIPs, with the exception of the one I'm designing myself, turn around and bite me on the ass. To wit:

The Prairie Tunic

An approximately 36.5-inch-circumference on my piddly 32-inches-at-most-breasts.
It ain't happening.

Previously, there was a problem with the triangle-shaping in this pattern. Here's the correction on IK. If you don't already, it is a really good idea to check IK's corrections page before starting a project. I knew about this issue, so it isn't what got me.

The problem I discovered, is that the finished measurements and the schematic appear to be off. They might have been calculated using Stst (though this doesn't work out mathematically either) or a different lace gauge than I got (more likely).

Unfortunately, it makes a huge difference in the finished garnment. In the smallest size, the waist and bust have a finished measurement of 33" in the pattern. On my tunic, the lace panel, which is 28 sts wide, measures 6 inches blocked (not the photo below, but a swatch that I have since ripped). So, if you do a little math, ((102 sts - 28 sts) / 6.5 sts/inch)) + 6 inches = 17.38". The schematic shows this as 16.25". Then there's the front, which has two 28 st lace panels, so ((102 sts - 56 sts) / 6.5 sts/inch)) + 12 inches = 19.07". The schematic shows this as 16.75". The total circumference would be 36.45" instead of the 33" as shown in the finished measurements of the pattern. Which might explain why the blogger it looks best on (blue garter, see below) has rather enviable womanly curves.

The lace, which is 28 sts over 6 inches of fabric.

Now, it is possible that somehow my lace gauge is way off, but if it were, I would have no way of knowing that, because it isn't included in the pattern. But my Stst is dead on, so I'd be surprised if the lace gauge was this far off. If you've made it, what was your lace gauge? I haven't alerted IK to the problem, but if someone else had similar lace gauge issues, I will.

I did some searching around on the net and found these bloggers who had finished the Prairie Tunic. Their comments give me some pause, but I like the pattern, so I think I will simply revise it for my lace gauge to get a closer fit, and consider adding a bit of waist shaping. I think Veronik Avery has a wonderful sense of style and I don't mind putting in some time to make it work for me. For this year, however, it's going to get put away so that I can make room for the short LA "winter" knitting season.

The upside of this experience was an intro to some great new (to me) blogs. The only person whose site I had visited before was Emily's. Check these out. There are some great pattern notes and photos. I love Blue Garter's Tunic, and Get in My Head's dress (in the same post) is gorgeous. Oh, and if you people don't blogsearch a pattern before you make it, you might want to start - I'm going to!

Frith's comment on Emily's blog

Amandamonkey's post on the Prairie Tunic and her FO shots (love it with the wife-beater)

Drago[knit]-fly's FO shots and notes

Blue Garter's FO shots and notes (evidence that breasts do well in this cami - did she shorten it, too? think so!).

Knits and Pieces' FO shots and notes

The Knitting Dork's FO shots and notes

FO shots on a Japanese site I wish I could read

Get in My Head's awesome dress! and Prairie Tunic