This is the Gathered Blouse from knit.wear fall 2012. My yarn is Cascade Elysian, a washable merino/acrylic blend. I've had this pattern queued for a long while but I didn't want to tackle the large number of stitches for the gathers at the neckline. I finally started it when I went on vacation to Honolulu this summer because I figured it was good airplane knitting. The gathered section didn't really take that long to knit. I don't think I made any changes to the pattern except to do my own waist shaping. I was afraid the worsted weight yarn would make it too stiff, but it actually drapes well. The wide neckline keeps it from being too warm. I'll have to see how it wears over time, but so far, I'm very happy with this sweater.
5 comments:
This is really an elegant and stylish sweater Betty! That gathered neckline and how you shaped the waist to be fitted is just gorgeous on you. I think now that the weather has turned cooler this will be a piece you really love to wear ~ enjoy :)
Hi Betty, I often avoid wide necklines because of the annoyance of bra straps showing. I don t know if you want to address underwear on your blog, but I would be interested in how you work around this problem. I do love those sleeves. Just the right amount of gathering. Chloe
Hi Chloe
Thanks for your nice comments. Funny you should mention the neckline issue. I was fine with the sweater when I first wore it, but I noticed that by the end of the first day, the neckline had gotten wider and started annoying me. So, I used a crochet hook and added a row of slip stitches at the neckline and now it's perfect. It took a couple of tries to get the tension just right so that the neckline is wide enough but not too wide.
Sometimes, instead of just a row of slip stitches, I would do a row of single crochet followed by a row of reverse single crochet to give it a nice finish that does not look like crochet. The slip stitches worked well in this case.
Just like you though, I avoid knitting sweaters with features like wide boat necklines -- they look great on the models but I know they will annoy me when I wear them.
Thanks, Betty! I will try to remember the slipped stitches. I have seen the row of crochet followed by reverse crochet on other people's projects and it really does tend to look quite lovely - so polished. So I am curious about the slipped stitches option as a probably quicker alternative. I couldn't enlarge your picture enough to see it in the photograph although the overall look appears very successful. However, the next time the opportunity presents itself I will try it! Chloe
Beautiful!The waist line is perfect.
I didn't know Cascade Elysian,but love the yarn.
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