Nadine is finished!

I've finished Nadine from French Girl Knits, and I love it! The yarn is Tahki Yarns Sierra, a silk/linen/nylon blend. When I first saw this pattern, I liked the overall look, but not the tunic length, and it looked like it required a lot of fiddly assembly work. After studying it more closely, I decided that this pattern can be highly customized for fit. As long as you know your own gauge, are comfortable with short row shaping, and study the schematic, you can make this fit any way you want. My gauge was a little finer at 15 stitches/4" and I wanted to shorten it by 5 inches.

Here's a summary of my size adjustments (omitting the gory details like number of stitches, which are specific for my fit)
- knitted 4.5 repeats for the lace panels, which establishes the length. I knit the pattern symmetrically.
- shortened and narrowed the lace insert short rows
- shortened the hip increase short rows
- lengthened the back bust short row increase rows.
- added a little bit of short row shaping for the front bust
- I made the back extension piece 7" wide instead of 9" -- 9" would have made the back way too wide the the sweater would fall off my shoulders.

The biggest technical difference was using the 3-needle bind off instead of grafting the lace panels. I discussed more of that in the last post. I also used slip stitch edging for the top edges, and a single crochet row for the bottom. I got lazy and did not want to pick up and knit stitches for the bottom.

I got a little frustrated with the assembly and finishing, which is rare for me because I like finishing work. I learned a technical lesson from this -- if I'm going to be sewing, picking up stitches, or adding a finishing edge, don't slip the first stitch of each row. The pattern calls for slipping the first stitch of each row on the lace panels, which looks nice if they will be standing alone. However, if I'm going to be adding more stitching, having the full number of stitches makes it easier and might look nicer because you get more options as to where to put new stitches. I should mention that I was not concerned with making the sweater reversible, which is a design feature, but is much more troublesome to accomplish.

A note on the yarn -- it's very soft, but feels like soft string. I'm not sure that I liked knitting with it, but the end result is very comfy. The yarn does tend to break when you do seaming and pull on it over and over -- it's fine for just knitting or crocheting.

Nadine on the needles

I'm currently working on Nadine from French Girl Knits (ravelry link) The yarn is Tahki Yarns Sierra. My gauge is a bit finer at 15 stitches/4" instead of 14 stitches. I'm also knitting it about 5" shorter than the pattern's length. I knitted 4.5 repeats of the side lace panels. I did one less pair of short rows on the bottom lace flutes and also made them 2 stitches shorter because my top is shorter and I did not need as much fluting on the bottom.

The biggest technical difference is that I used 3-needle bind-off to join the front panel with the side lace sections instead of grafting with the Kitchener stitch. The 3-needle bind-off is much easier to do. There's already a discontinuity between the center horizontally knit piece and the vertical side pieces, so I figure a little more discontinuity wouldn't hurt -- I could just consider it a design element. The main reason I did it is because I wanted some stability to prevent the sweater from stretching with wear. This yarn is like very soft string, and with the loose gauge, I could just see it reaching my knees with a little wear unless there is some kind of seaming.

I'm working on the back panel now, so it shouldn't take much longer. I'm hoping to get enough wear out of it before summer weather ends.

FO: Paloma

I recently finished Paloma (ravelry link) from French Girl Knits by Kristeen Griffin-Grimes. he yarn is
Jaeger Trinity, a silk/cotton/polyamide blend.

I just LOVE the vintage-y look of this sweater. My chosen color also adds to the effect -- it looks like something I unearthed from an attic trunk. Wearing it makes me feel like I should be stepping into one of these garden party scenes in a PBS mystery.
I made the neckline narrower, and changed the distribution of stitches at the underarm, as described in this post and this post. I'm very happy with the customizations. I don't need a ribbon to keep the neckline in place, and I have just the right amount of ease at the bust line. In addition, I never changed over to the largest needle size in the bottom section. I just used the middle needle size and did 4 repeats of the 13-stitch pattern and 3 each of the 14-stitch and 15-stitch patterns. I think it would have been way to big at the bottom if I used the largest needle.
Finally, I used an eyelet border on the bottom and on the sleeve edging which looks like the neckline, more or less.