a little reminder...

It may be time to change your sponge bar! It doesn’t happen often here – it’s hot and muggy - so I kind of forget but if your lace isn’t lacing or your tucks keep on tucking, not knitting off when they should, the problem is likely the sponge bar https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2016/02/mental-note.html

– and this can happen on the LK150 too! https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2011/02/murphys-law.html

I was reverse shortrowing the curve of the hem for my olive tunic – I started that after completing the hand-transferred Triangles of Lace. Planned to add 10 cm/42 rows from the centre out, beginning with 10 sts in work at centre, adding  5 sts back into work alternately on each side, every other row, using holding position. Because of the curve you need to keep adjusting the weights and I noticed the tucks weren't all knitting off properly. At first, I blamed it on the weights but as it kept happening, it finally dawned on me, it's that freaking sponge bar! Sure enough, it was virtually flat and I'm blaming it on the weather! I changed it out after finishing the shortrowing - don't try to do it in the middle of the shortrowing, wait until you have every thing back in work. I took the piece off on the garter bar to make the change.

 

You might wonder how I arrived at the 10 cm? I’m sort of copying a bought top that I love the shape of – it fits nicely at the top and bust and then is quite loose and swingy, fingertip length with an exaggerated A-line, nice and airy for hot weather. I laid it out and measured across the width at the bottom – notice the tape measure below the red ruler to record the depth of the curve.

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 ;)