dissect that...

swatch! Look at the cast-on first. The chain cast-on, double-stranded, alone, can be a tough one to knit over and when you have a somewhat soft yarn like this, expecting it to knit over those picot knots…hum-m-mm. (Tip: if the yarn breaks easily when you yank it between your fingers, it will likely break when there's extra pressure when knitting across the row.) Sometimes it will work but when you’ve invested the time in doing something fancy like this over the whole 200 needles wide who can afford to have the yarn break on the first row? It pays to knit it manually rather than hoping you can fix the broken yarn scenario because the yarn break may not actually release until the 4th or 5th row and then you’ve really invested some time that you can’t get back. Just saying…
20 stitch repeat, right? Place the picot knot away from the end needles, centring the pattern/picot knot at #11 right instead of #1 right and remember to flip (#11 left instead of #1 left) that in the layout of the second piece so it matches better at the side seams. Both sides won’t be perfect on 200 needles wide because you’ll be one stitch short, but it’s not worth making it 9 stitches less wide.
In the swatch, I experimented a bit with that garter stitch ridge – did one as the tuck rib like in Hodgepodge but I thought, over the 20-st repeat, there are less garter stitches to reform across the row than in the 12-st one and if you can’t go the extra mile for something for yourself when will you? I really liked the extra definition that the garter stitch added – maybe just the colour difference makes it show up better? When I was making the second piece/Front, I remembered something!

I had a seed stitch tool - would it work for garter stitch ridges so I could save some pain? I knew I had a standard gauge one somewhere… the jury’s still out on that issue, but it did work!
Back to the swatch, used two different stitch patterns just to see if the width changed greatly with more tucks per row – 2.4 sts to 10 cm as opposed to 2.5 sts on the one with less tucks – not really a factor and the row gauge was the same on both swatches.
P.S. The mid gauge seed stitch tool is great, it’s worth having! Tell Lea-Ann I said hi!
P.P.S. When you have two cones, you don't have to worry about measuring out a certain amount and doubling that over - you can just use 1 strand from each cone! Breakthrough of the century! ;)!!

i made a swa-a-at-ch....

Omigosh! It’s been ages since I did that! I’ve come to the end of my list of making tops for family and I have been feeling a bit left out. It’s time for one for me! My knitting friend Peg got me thinking about a tunic and I’ll admit, I’ve been trying those last ones on and seeing what shapes I like. And, that #10 band,Triangles of Lace from Knitting on the EDGE, that turned out to be a 20-stitch repeat that I didn’t do for Vickie’s tank http://knitwords.blogspot.com/2020/07/half-cocked.html is still niggling me. Wow! If you followed all that, wait to see what else I’m gonna tell ya! I need to do what I meant to back then, using that trim but changing the cast-on to a chained picot knot so that’s what I’m starting off with now. Search my stock of summer-weight yarns – not much there, but I did find 2 cones  of Silk Denim, a cotton/silk blend with a sort of gimp (not exactly smooth - https://textilecourse.blogspot.com/2018/04/types-fancy-yarns-uses.html) in a strange, khaki, green-ish colour that was labeled olive which is likely why I ordered it but the yellowy cast to it kept putting me off . I dialed up the KNITWORDS index to do some research – know I’ve used this yarn before, but it turns out, mostly stockinette although it was used in Groovy, one of my favourite all-time jackets (cover of Knitwords #47) https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2008/11/groovy-re-do.html. Because I want the extra width that the one-row-tuck provides, here’s me, swatching!

sorry to leave you hanging....

We are having the summer of a lifetime! The hottest it’s been since 1921! Too hot to knit most days and I’ve been having to get out real early to get my 8 km walk/hike in before the day really heats up but it’s going to cool a bit for August so I’ll be back at it! Took a couple of days to sew some more masks – they are mandatory for public indoor places here (the kids need them for back-to-school) and I like to do my bit to help others! Just finished reading William Kent Krueger’s Ordinary Grace – I laughed, I cried, my heart hurt and I didn’t want it to end! If it was for myself, I would never have told you the story of Vickie’s tank. Would’ve put it together and held my head high as I walked away but for some reason, I can’t do that for a gift. I almost had enough yarn to remake the Back again but did unravel half of it and reuse – I wanted to save part as evidence that I did re-do! Think Vickie will be pretty happy with this, walking back or forward! Stay safe, smile and do your part! P.S. just one more excuse...blogger has made some changes I'm not exactly happy with but I'm trying ;)

space cadet...

lace stitch pattern

Squared Off

That’s me too, totally out of touch with reality! The success of that new trim went to my head, what can I say? In such a hurry to get on with knitting, again, not looking, examining and checking, I blithely picked number five off my PE1, thinking it looked like the 1RT (one-row-tuck)  that I had used for Squared Off from Knitwords #50 and just started knitting away. I was halfway up the back before I realized it wasn’t a true 1RT. And how did I finally come to that conclusion? Well, a real 1Rt has a plain row and then a tucked row and you can hear the difference as you knit but for some reason I was in ‘power-knit’ mode which isn’t really my style. I was decreasing one stitch every 20 rows and at the beginning of the pattern, the tuck row was on the to-the-left pass so I was doing the decrease when the carriage was on the right because there would (should) be a plain row with no

one-row-tuck stitch pattern

tucks every time you’re on the right, right? Wrong…like I said, at about row 100, I was going to do the decrease and there were tucks. What the?? I looked closer and realized I chose the wrong stitch pattern. This one was from that black lace cardigan, https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2019/01/unfinished-business.html, Becca, I did last year but it was also the same one I used for that purple tank with the lace motif  https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2020/06/purple-peril.html  from just a few weeks ago – boy! short-term memory loss!

Now, in my defense, the window on the PE1 shows only 10 rows by a single width repeat at a time so it is sort of easy to make a mistake like this. Anyway, the purl side of the fabric looked fine on the machine as I was knitting it, so I finished off the Back.
Then, I did some research, found the right stitch pattern and for some strange reason decided to use it for the Front. Do you think she’ll notice?

half cocked...

that’s me! Hot off the success of the denim tunic, I quickly moved into my next one, for friend, Vickie. She has just moved into new digs so this will be like a little house-warming thing. I say quickly because it would be the same size and yarn as the denim one, so no extra figuring or anything, just choosing a new trim for the hem and another 1RT pattern. I had in mind to use #10, Triangles of Lace, the beige one https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2020/07/getting-my-moneys-worth.html  from Knitting on the EDGE, but adding the picot knot to the cast on row instead of the double chained lines. Again, without stopping to check, thinking it was a 12-st repeat, chained on with the picot knot on every 12th needle, which I didn’t even have to mark because I have it already on my number strip! Paused to grab the orange book and what the?? Rats! It’s a 20-stitch repeat! Oh well, you know how I hate ripping out or admitting a mistake! I’ll use a 12 st-repeat – kind of obvious, right? That cute little one I used on the poussin/lemony tank will do! https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2020/05/still-cheating.html

I found I really dislike doing that reformed garter stitch continuously , so I'll change it into something not so labour-intersive. Here’s what I did:

#151 HODGE PODGE. 

Chain with picot knot, hand transferred lace scallop with tuck rib. 12 stitch repeat, side away is right side.

1.     Cast-on waste yarn, ravel cord. Mark every 12th needle, starting with #1 right. RC000. CAR. Measure out MC 6X width of ns in work, plus 8-10 inches. Double it over on itself to have 2 strands together. This will make a long-enough double strand for the chain cast-on with 3 st-knots. Bring ns to D/E. 

2.     With mid gauge latch tool, chain loosely from left to right,
      to 3 ns past 1st marked needle.
3.     Make knot: Hold loop on tool. Remove chain from last 3 ns (draw ns back to drop chain, but not ravel cord st behind) and return ns to D/E. Put loop from tool into hook of last needle(the marked stitch) with chain on and knit loop through. Take that loop off needle and put back on tool, to resume chaining.
4.   Take tool with loop to right of marked needle and strands of MC on left, chain 16X. This should be 3 ns past the next marked stitch.
5.     Repeat #2-3 to end of row.
6.     Anchor last loop on end needle. Close latches. Single strand, MT+1, knit 2 rows.
7.     Using 5-prong tool, transfer as in chart, starting with#1 right as the centre with 3 stitches together. Knit 2 rows.  RC004.
8.     Transfer as in chart to RC012 – leave the tuck rib business until this row – because the stitch drops down and is reformed on every other row, it can be done in one operation, instead of every other row!
9.     T10, knit 1 row. RC013, CAL. Take yarn out of feeder.
10.   Leaving sts in hooks, carefully bring ns out and single strand, with std gauge latch tool, chain across loosely behind work.
11.   Push ns back to WP, pulling the chain knit through the sts.
12.   MT, K1R. Continue as desired!

 

that knot...

In the original instructions for that #34 ‘chained picot knot’, there were 2 extra needles chained over and dropped to make the ‘knot’. Looking at my original swatch, because this top is more of a tunic, I thought it might look nicer with a bigger knot, so added an extra needle/stitch to the mix and I like it. Be sure to add a little extra to the amount pulled off for the double-stranded chain – you really wouldn’t want to run out of that extra strand before the end on this one! Notice I also added that chained line above the transferred stitches that make the scallop, to divide the trim from the tuck pattern – I think of this as a row of top-stitching to add an extra defining detail and so happy with that too!

Oh man, I’m such a greedy little thing! Joined the shoulders, finished the neck and slipped it on and this is too cute! So what if it’s a little big? An oversized sleeveless tunic is perfect for this way-too-hot weather! And I love the colour! Quickly decide she would prefer a short sleeve, work those up and get them on before I can really fall in love with this!

getting my money's worth...

out of that 8-stitch repeat envelope!
I found another trim that is an 8 stitch repeat! #34 in Band Practise, the pink book. It’s got a double-stranded chained cast-on with a picot knot, corresponding with a hand-transferred lace scallop.

Let me start again. My next top is for Thunder Bay sister, Bridget, and with the success of Marnie’s (ivory 1RT with short sleeve) I’m feeling more confident going into a larger size so using the 1RT technique again and I want a hem that will complement that, be wide enough for the tuck fabric, add a little jazz to the top and keep me busy!

Gather up the swatches and debate with myself what will look best – so glad I have all these samples – much nicer than looking at the photos!
Happy 4th, eh?