Tag Archives: Kit Camisole

10:10 am - July 16, 2013 - AngelaH

Kit Kit Kit Kit Kit

Sorry. I’m a little excited. On Sunday, I finished Kit and this morning it is finally dry and that means it is finished! Honestly, it wasn’t a difficult knit or even particularly big, but I am feeling triumphant! Also, I love it.

I don’t have any finished shots of me wearing it (L and I have not had many daylight hours together in the last couple of days), but oh well. I thought about waiting, but no, I’m too pleased. Because of my tighter (firmer?) gauge, this is not the flowy, beachy tank that you might expect based on the pattern pictures; instead, it’s a more fitted top, knit at just about zero ease. I really like this version, and I’m actually seriously considering casting on for another one, but going up two needle sizes so I’ll get a slightly different look. As I said, I love it.

Generally speaking, though, the things I love in the finished garment were not really things I loved in the knitting of the garment. The half-linen stitch border, which I could actually consider making a half inch wider in a second version? I hated knitting it. It was so, so slow. (Although, to my great surprise and delight, knitting it flat was a total pleasure, and looks nicer too, so go figure.) I was also totally dismayed to realize that after finishing the straps and sewing them down there was more finishing to do. I actually thought about not doing it, but then, well, it looks so nice and polished.

Details
Pattern: Kit Camisole by Bristol Ivy
Yarn: Louet Euroflax Sportweight in Golden Rod
Needle: 3 mm
Mods: The main mod was my gauge, which as substantially tighter than the pattern’s. To accommodate that, I changed the following:

I did fewer decreases. I decreased four times total, basically following the pattern for those four and then just stopping (rather than spreading them out over the course of the whole piece). (I should note that this threw off the stitch count in terms of restarting the half-linen stitch pattern at the top of the back, so while the pattern worked for me, that means it won’t work for you if you follow it. Cassy talked to the designer and it’s being fixed.)
Because I had more stitches at the top of the back than the pattern said I should have, I had to rework the number of stitches to bind off for the back. To do that, I just counted all my stitches (269) and divided by two, allocating 134 for the front and 135 for the back. From the 135, I subtracted 21 (the stitches in the centre panel) and the divided that number in half so I’d know how many stitches needed to be on each side of the panel to keep it centred. The end result just meant moving my beginning of round marker back one stitch (adding two stitches to the front).
I did an extra set of decreases on the front for two reasons: 1. My gauge opened up a lot once I started knitting flat, and 2. I had two more stitches because I did fewer decreases on the back.
I knit my straps on 13 stitches and made them 11 inches (rather than 9.5), and kind of wish I’d made them even slightly longer. The finishing looks really nice, but it snugs things up.

And there you go. I’m not sure I’ll cast on for a second one right this minute, but I’m already thinking about what colour to knit it in, which is definitely a sign. My Kit is ravelled here.

Categories: finished, Knitting Tags: Kit Camisole

10:24 am - July 10, 2013 - AngelaH

Sticking with it

I am normally way more about the process than the product when it comes to knitting, but man, I cannot wait until Kit is finished and I can wear it. The smooth dryness of linen is the perfect antidote to the crazy humidity and rain we’ve been getting (and don’t worry, L and I made it through Monday’s storm with just a few hours of no power and no flooding; we were definitely some of the lucky ones).

Anyway, I buckled down on Kit over the weekend and have been knitting on it every spare minute I can find and slowly, slowly, I am starting to see the finish line. I’m a few rows from casting off for the back, which will just leave front and straps to knit. In my mind, that’s nothing and I’ll be wearing this by the end of the weekend. Reality may have something different in store for me, but I’m starting to feel that end-of-project buzz, so lets not dampen that.

Categories: in progress, Knitting Tags: Kit Camisole

9:25 am - July 5, 2013 - AngelaH

Restless, restless

I don’t know if it’s the weather, work, or what, but I just cannot seem to settle on anything these days. I love all the projects on my needles, but for some reason don’t really feel like knitting on any of them. I’m restless. It hits me every year around this time, so maybe it’s a hold-over from my (long ago) days in elementary school, when the beginning of July meant the beginning of freedom and now means, well, nothing (not true: July 1 is Canada Day and that means quite a lot, but you know what I mean).

Clockwise from top left: Dragonfly yarns Dragon Sock in Mushroom Hunting B-Side and Djinni Sock in Admiral Benbow; Tosh Sock in Celadon and Cousteau; and Malabrigo Sock in Lettuce. These are not all destined to become garments for me.

Sigh. The thing about being restless with my knitting is that even when I don’t want to work on what’s right in front of me, I still want to knit, so I go on Ravelry and read blogs and get all revved up and buy yarn. Being restless can be expensive, is what I’m saying.

It’s that Cousteau that’s calling my name (it wants to be a shawl and it wants it now!). It’s saying that I finished that little dress and finishing means getting to cast on something new, but I’m going to ignore its siren song and plow ahead with Kit. I’m about a third of the way through the body and it’s the perfect weather to wear it and, truth be told, the mindless knitting of the body suits my mood.

Of course, it took three inches of plain sock knitting to realize that, but these were already on the needles from a time when I needed plain, plain knitting, so they’re fair game I think. Plus, I miss working on socks. I can’t seem to settle myself enough to actually spend time on them, but I can feel that magic coming back, so I’m going to give it a little time. Maybe once Kit is finished?

These have been on the needles forever, and I like that they’re there when I just need a row or two of mindless knitting in fun colours.

The main thing, when I hit these sorts of doldrums (holy nautical metaphors in this post – sorry) is just to keep knitting. Eventually I’ll re-find the spark that got me into the project in the first place, so it’s just a question of stitch following stitch until that happens. It isn’t as if the knitting isn’t enjoyable; even less than riveting knitting is still soothing.

Categories: in progress, Knitting Tags: Kit Camisole, socks

9:12 am - June 20, 2013 - AngelaH

Kit is coming along

There was less of this than I was hoping for, but I snuck in backyard knitting where I could.

Linen! Right? I mean, it’s so sort of rough and crunchy in the skein, but then you start knitting with it and it gets all soft and drapey and wow, I’m a convert. I was worried its stiffness would make my hands hurt or tire out my wrists, but you know, I’m a third of the way through Kit (maybe more than that, actually) and I’m fine.

I will say, though, that the border took forever. I tend to feel like that about edgings (especially when you start with them) but this one really forever. I actually gave serious thought to skipping out early, but then I’d look back at the pattern pictures and admire the wide hem and decide the slog was worth it. And you know, if I can block the thing flat I think it probably will be.

That 2.5 inches of rolled hem represents close to eight hours of work. So sad.

The panel up the back is the same texture, and although some people chose to skip it and just knit the body in stockinette, I really like the detail it gives the piece. I also like how the decreases run up the back, rather than on the sides, making it feel a little swingier and less structured.

My version won’t actually be as swingy as I would have liked because my gauge swatch lied big time. Like, it was off by about six stitches. Sigh. I knit most of this on the train to and from Windsor (about four hours each way, minus sleeping time since we were up early both days) and on the way back, once I was well into the stockinette portion, I decided to check my gauge. With wool, my gauge is the same flat as it is in the round; not so with linen, it seems. I tried on what I had when I got home, though, and the fit is fine, but not quite as airy as the pattern photos.

I really like the fabric I’m getting, though (the stitches are close enough together that I won’t need to layer anything underneath), so to ad drape I’d pretty much have to rip it all back and knit another size. That is, quite frankly, unappealing. So I’m going to keep going, but alter the decreases a bit so it fits nicely across the chest.

It might be a little while before I get there, though, since in a week and a half we’re meeting our friends’ baby for the first time (she was born in March, and gifted this little hat and sweater) and dammit I’m not showing up without an adorable gift. That gives me about a week to turn this (still unwound) skein of Malabrigo Sock into a Sproutlette. That’s doable, right?

Malabrigo Sock in Lettuce.

Categories: in progress, Knitting Tags: baby knits, Kit Camisole

10:40 am - June 10, 2013 - AngelaH

A lemon

Well, it seems I am not the only one who finds it impossible to concentrate on my current projects (however much I’m enjoying them) when there are other enticing things out there. Audry made a great point in her comment, saying she can only settle when she’s cast on. I don’t want to totally drop Grace , but I must admit that the Kit Camisole has been calling my name, and getting more insistent, since the pattern was released.

On Saturday, I thought I’d cave a little and wind the yarn (Louet Euroflax in Goldenrod) so I could swatch. L and I are going away for a few days next weekend, so my grand plan is to bring Kit as my travel knitting (we’re taking the train, which is a great place to knit) and concentrate on Grace until then. So, I wound one skein.

In the course of the winding, though, the end at the middle got lost. I like a centre-pull ball, so I was annoyed and I decided to re-wind the ball (I do this with yarn all the time and have never had a problem. Ahem. I got maybe a quarter of the way through the original ball when, to my shock and horror, the ball forming on my ball winder flew off the ball winder and landed on the floor several feet away.

Three partial balls and a giant tangle.

Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like that before. So, I decided to try again. Not even halfway through the smaller ball and the stupid thing launched itself off the ball winder and flew over the table and landed on the floor. Honestly. I was speechless. I just – what the heck? Clearly linen is a slippery little beast of a fiber and should come with some kind of warning. As far as I can tell (and I haven’t wound another skein yet, although I’ll need to before we leave) it winds up just fine the first time when the swift provides tension, but after that, just forget it.

The result? This rather loose and annoying hand-wound ball. Linen has no stick, so while wool will happily sit smooth and still in a ball, linen has no interest in it. This is a lemon. Nonetheless, it has certainly satiated my desire to get started on Kit, which I have swatched for and can now set aside until Saturday. Phew.

Category: Knitting Tags: Kit Camisole, linen, winding