(Sorry for the low light.)
Pattern: Shetland Shorty, by Gudrun Johnston for Knitty Summer 2008
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy, a little over half a hank of Petal Shower
Needles: US 3 and US 4 circs
Size: XS
Start to Finish: July 4-14, 2008
Mods: When preparing to make my Shorty, I reviewed the yarn requirements for the smallest size (490) and the yardage in my hank of Smooshy (450) and thought, "Well, that's perfect. I have just enough!" It took me a few days to actually realize that 450 is less than 490 (for someone who was pretty good at math back in the day, this is highly embarrassing). To compensate, I cast on fewer stitches for the garter stitch sash and did a few fewer rows. I think I took out 2 lace pattern repeats on the front and back sections as well. (It would be nice if I had recorded those numbers so this story wouldn't be quite so pointless...). In the end, I got away with only using about 270 yards of the Smooshy in total. I doubt my mods saved that much yarn, so I'm not quite sure what happened. I blame my Continental knitting style, as when I can't think of anything else, that's what I blame.
Notes: What a fun pattern! The Bird's Eye lace pattern was easily memorizeable, but not boring in the least. And of course it was lovely not to have any seams to sew at the end -- hooray for three-needle bind-off! I think the shape of this sweater is so cute and I especially like the little sleeves. It's interesting to me that we usually employ lots of tricks to make things the shape we want, but in this case it was a lack of fancy shaping that gave these sleeves their cute shape.
Unfortunately, I'm not in love with the color I chose. It's too close to my skin tone, or something. I adored working with the Smooshy, but this pinky color may have been better matched with some socks. I also think that a yarn with some silk -- as in the original -- would have been lovely. Maybe next time...
My other "unfortunately" is that I'm not sure my lace looks as it should. There are these funny pieces of yarn in the "holes" that I don't notice on anyone else's Shetland Shorty, in Ravelry-land at least. This is a slightly embarrassing angle, but it shows what I mean...
Let's blame the Continental knitting again.
Unfortunatelies aside, I do quite like the sweater and it will definitely get some wear once the sun comes back out. Thank you for such a lovely pattern, Gudrun!
8 comments:
Seriously sexy. I love the color with the black. Fab job!
Thanks for such a rav review!
Those threads you see in the more stretched out parts of the top are meant to look like that..it just isn't as noticeable when the lace is less taut.
I think it looks lovely on you!
Hm, I think the holes look fine. On the yardage front, I've heard of people making whole tops with just 2 skeins of Smooshy, so you'd think you wouldn't need too much for the S.S. Hmmm... again.
Never blame Continental! It's so the way to go.
I don't think those holes/yarn in the bird's eye lace are strange- I think it's just the angle, which of course you can see more readily because you're looking down! When you're looking at it straight on, you don't see a thing. And if I'm totally wrong..... then I say it's a 'design feature' that personalizes your Shorty! ;)
- Julie
That's so cute on you! I like the color - it's a nice contrast with the black. It's odd how sometimes the yardage stated is seemingly off sometimes. Maybe because you were worried about not having enough yardage your tension was tighter? I don't mean in an uptight way - just that you may have unconsciously been trying to conserve the yarn.
looks beautiful--I think the pink color is just fine with your skin tone as long as you wear a contrasting color like the black underneath.
It's too bad you're not entirely satisfied with the colour, cause I think it looks great. You've paired it well with the dress in the photo.
And smooshy - that yarn is the cat's pajamas.
I think the lace looks good, and the entire thing turned out great! Isn't it satisfying when you can use juuuust the right amount of stash yarn?
oh, love, love this! nice and summery, but you can still wear it when it cools off.
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