it's tea time...

Or so I thought! Let me backtrack a bit. When I made the first swatch and saw the shading that was going on because of different dye lots, especially on the stockinette swatch, I flashbacked to my very early years and recalled when I used to use steeped tea to dye my white bra to a nude/skin tone (I’m talking fifty years ago - you may have been able to buy nude tone bras at the time, but maybe not where I lived or maybe I didn’t have the extra cash to buy both a white and a nude bra) and it was pre-Martha Stewart! Anyway, now I had in the back of my mind that I could use tea to colour the two white shades to an ecru shade that would still give me the benefit of a non-colour that would go with anything. 

I did try it out on the original swatch (which was the same as the Back) and it looked very promising - even the acrylic yarn took the tea shade well, so I jumped in, let’s do this! Made my tea, 4 tea bags (orange pekoe black tea) in 4  cups hot water and let it steep for  an hour or so. Dumped that into my large soup pot and added enough warm water to more than enough to cover the garment. Swished it around several times, every ten minutes, let it sit for a couple of hours. Dumped it out, wrung the garment and put it in the washer with a bit of detergent, let it finish and tossed it in the dryer. Yikes! How could I go so wrong? I couldn’t even take a picture - it was all mottled, ugly and the Back was still distinctly much lighter than the other parts!

And I thought, oh freaking heck! I can’t show that to anyone! What the aich am I going to do? Next thing, here I am, madly googling, how to remove tea stains? Baking soda! Huh! Well, of course, I dreamt about it all night! Omg! May be I could just not say anything more and get into a new project…but I felt like that would be lying. 

Tried the baking soda, didn’t really do much but it is a little more even-looking, not quite as patchy. I’m going to live with it over the next few months and weigh my options. I could try that painting technique that I used for the tiger stripe thing https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2011/01/tiger-in-my-sweater.html ,  here’s the link to the finished product https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2011/01/minor-alterations-only.html   from way back or see how another go at the Woodstock thing https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2010/06/woodstock.html   painting would go…here’s the finished thing: https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2010/09/september-update.html

note to self…

Darn in every end before the laundering! I left the tails on the stockinette facing for the neckline slash opening- I was thinking the tails could be used for stitching the facing in place and I wanted to preshrink it before that. Wrong! The tails will wrap around anything and get entangled… nothing good happens here! I should have known this because it’s happened before but I thought if I told you, maybe I’d remember for next time. Anyway, I sorted it out and it's good.

So happy with how this turned out! The fit is perfect. I know I made out like this was an old-school drop shoulder but I did say with modifications!

Maybe I should clarify what I mean by old-school drop shoulder - that shapeless rectangle with 4 inch ease! Here’s what I did. Instead of that big rectangle with the neckline cut out, I sloped the side seam line to make it slightly wider at the hemline which I wanted to be mid thigh; the width at bust is bust measurement, no extra; sloped the shoulder line by 5 cm; and added a little 5 cm triangle to the top of the sleeve. It fits nicely at the bust, without that extra bulk at the underarm, the sleeve is just right, not too oversized and I love it!

The Back is still stark white though...

not the ‘c’ word…

That’s crochet, in case you were wondering! I'm crochet-impaired but I’ve got plenty of crochet-look trims, totally done on the machine, at my fingertips so, for me, a trim done on the machine is what I’m looking for. 

By my definition, a trim/edging, here, is to finish off the open stitches, make sure it doesn’t roll back or up  when you don’t want it to and for it to look good!

On the sleeve/ cuff edge, I chose one of my all-time favs, ‘XOXO, #33’ from my booklet,  ‘Band Practise’. It uses every-other-needle manual tuck, with  an RTR (remove, turn, rehang) to make a wider than stockinette band that doesn’t restrict the width of the cuff - I usually end up pushing up my sleeves to elbow-length and the extra width allows for that here.

For the bottom hems, I went with that new-ish one, #154, 'Me-Cozy Variation' that I put on the pink one-row-tuck hoodie https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2023/05/pinkie.html 

I had almost forgot about it! ;)

My seaming, uses my Franky seaming method https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2021/04/deja-vu.html

picture-perfect…

I’ve just been picking away at this, nothing too strenuous, a little bit here, a little bit there and remembering to switch out my sponge bars each time I start a new piece. Got the Front done and both sleeves, attached them as I went so the four basic pieces are knitted and together. Now, it is glaringly obvious, the back is white-white and the rest of the pieces are winter white. Sigh! 

So I can only wear it at night or a dull, cloudy day! But I sort of knew that was going to happen. In the original swatches, looking closely, in a certain light, I could see patchy spots. For the back, I used the two cones that were different dye lots, same as I used for the swatching. Then on the front, I used the two smaller cones that had the same dye lot. It was distinctly yellowish compared to the back. I made both sleeves in the same as the front figuring that I wouldn’t be looking at the back when it was on me so who cares ;). The pockets, which I plan to sew on with the sewing machine, like patch pockets, are done same as the front and I managed to get the hood out of that same dye lot…

I’m down to the trims...we’ll see what happens…

I’m not gloating, but would you look at that hood? Shortrowing in lace 4 times and not a stitch out of place!

old-school…

Laundered that swatch and got right into it. My vision changed slightly (overall diamonds of lace instead of the mesh-look) but I still liked the idea of that drop shoulder. With a few modifications! ;)

Drew up my schematic, used the gauge from the washed swatch and did my calculations to get stitch and row numbers on my paper pattern. Also drew the schematic on the Mylar for the knit radar - I always like to have two methods of figuring the numbers just in case! 

Making the Back first - it’s the biggest piece and if something is going to go wrong, might as well be right off the get-go - I’m leaving the decision on edgings/trim for later, so my cast-on, after the waste yarn, is just two plain rows of stockinette and then the lace. And what do you know? I forgot to release the pattern! Fu-u-dge! I was about to drop it all off the machine and maybe go pout.

I caught myself! Hey, no need to go through the cast-on and all that again - just knit a few rows waste, add another ravel cord and get back to it. 

Zip, zap, zoom, the Back is done, perfectly, and I didn’t even miss a beat when it came to shortrowing the shoulder slope - here’s a link to a tutorial for shortrowing in lace, using the ravel cord method, no annoying ads! - (https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2017/01/life-lessons.html 

Got the second shoulder done, it’s off the machine and I feel like a rockstar! If only I had a guitar to smash!

trial and errors...

I’ll admit, it was a few weeks before I had a chance to get down to business and there was a lot of pondering going on. I had settled on the mesh lace stitch (the tuck lace mesh from the shopping bag closes up too much unless something is stretching it out and I didn't want it to be me!;)) and settled on Montana 2 ply yarn doubled  (https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2021/05/brittany-is-very-fine-314-2-ply-cotton.html ).

To be honest, it was the only white cotton I had, 4 partial cones adding up to almost 950g which would be more than enough and even with the differing dye lots, they all looked the same, colour wise.

If I was knitting stockinette or tuck, there is the option of plating to make sure there wasn’t a patchy colour distribution from running two dyelots, but this was lace on the silver reed and because of the separate lace carriage, no plating allowed but my backup plan was to overdye to a light ecru shade. I’d make swatches and see what happened…

Starting with a stockinette swatch, I then programmed in the mesh lace - It wasn’t really promising…dropped stitches everywhere! Yes, I had changed the sponge bar! https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-elephant-in-room.html 

Left that on pause and went to this blog and searched lace carriage knitting - ohmigosh, a lot of reading! I was sure I had fully covered this topic but couldn’t find what I wanted - what to do if your lace carriage knitting isn’t working…

1. Check the needles. If the stitch is dropping in the same place, over and over, change the needle. In lace, it’s difficult to tell which needle, the transferee or the receiver - change both of them.
   
   
   
2. Still happening, look at the sinker posts/gate pegs - a bent one can interfere with the transfer.
3. Maybe the tension/stitch size isn’t right. Too tight and stitches drop instead of transferring.. Too loose and the transferred stitch may end up over a sinker post.
4. Even weighting - makes a big difference, too much weight and stitches don’t transfer. Not enough weight, same thing. (https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2008/11/i-just-have-to-tell-you-i-finally.html)
   
   
   
   
5. Change the yarn and see if that stitch pattern knits with a smooth acrylic. If it does, likely the first yarn isn’t suitable for that particular pattern - try another one, stitch pattern, I mean.

This was supposed to be a fun, easy project, not an endurance test. If you can’t make a perfect swatch, it isn’t likely to get better making larger pieces! I moved on to #5 and set up for that ‘Me  Cozy’ lace https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2021/04/deja-vu.html

 that I still love so much. It worked flawlessly with the doubled cotton - it has more than enough holes to be loose and airy-looking!

motivation…

Did you think I was done? You’d never hear from me again? Ha! I’m like a bad penny, always turning up! Persistent, my middle name!

I’ve been machine knitting for 35 years. It’s becoming increasingly more difficult to come up with something to knit - what could be new, what do I need/want now? What would be fun and, most important,  what do I have the yarn for?

A couple of weeks ago, it hit! 

The inspiration, I mean! On our afternoon talk show, 

‘The Social’, Elvira Kurt was guest-hosting, and when she came out in this mesh, oversized sweater, I was, like, what is that? It was white, quite loose and airy looking and I thought, that’s perfect for a throw-on coverup! 

Oh sure, I have lots of cardigans that work with different things and occasions, but they usually mean getting redressed from the ground up. White, loose-fitting, cool and airy would go over anything and you’re out the door! I got all fired up and excited! 

I had that show on my PVR so I could rerun it and snap a few pictures to get a better look. Elvira is a cute, diminutive comedian and she mugged for the cameras, so I do apologize if she looks a little goofy, and the over-size on her is much larger than it will be on me but you’ll get the idea…

I do have 4 part-cones of white Montana, 2 ply cotton, 3 different dye lots, I’m thinking that mesh-lace stitch, https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2022/01/its-2022.html 

from the red Bonita hoodie…maybe I'll tell you what I planned and what I did...