Saturday, May 2, 2009

WIPs

I've been knitting the same two garments listed on the last post. I've made good progress on Mirabella. The only thing left are the two short sleeves. I really like the crochet button front on this sweater. In addition to the two rows of slip stitches, I added a single crochet row on the button side just in the lower section where the buttons sit. This provides a firm surface for the buttons and eliminates any chance of the dreaded button band gaposis. My button loops are done as 3 chain stitches each, skipping over one chain stitch on the row below.

Paloma is a much slower knit, at least for the top part. I've reached the bottom section, where things will go much faster. The top section had k2tog tbl stitches on every other row, which just took forever with this sticky yarn. I also kept making little mistakes here and there. Most of them were fixable, but if they weren't, they're hopefully buried in the stitch pattern. I changed the number of stitches for each section at the underarm division point. I used 60 stitches for the back, 70 for the front, and 60 for each sleeve. I wanted a little more ease at the bust line, and I don't mind a little less fullness in the sleeves. The pattern
(smallest size) called for 45 stitches for the back and 75 for the front, which makes for a pretty narrow back section. Most of the 15 underarm cast-on stitches would have landed at the back, but I was afraid too much of my back lower underarms would leak out of the sweater -- not a pretty sight.

3 comments:

Ellen Bloom said...

Both sweaters are looking good. The button band on Mirabella came out beautifully! Congrads.

robin said...

Which yarn are you using for Paloma? Thanks for the info on it, I think I will do the same thing. I bought the recommended yarn in a bright emerald green.

betty said...

My yarn is Jaeger Trinity, which is 40% silk, 35% cotton, and 25% polyamide. It think it is a discontinued yarn. It's also more textured that the recommended yarn, I think.