Finished something, finally

Blue penny front
Originally uploaded by thraceknits

Between some late nights at work and playing outside lots, I did actually manage to finish a project.

Pattern

Bad Penny by Stephanie Japel, in size small.

Yarn

Eden knit up on US 7 (4.5 mm) and US 4 (3.5mm) needles.

Although the bamboo fabric is nice and soft, and feels pretty good in the heat of summer, I won't be working with this yarn again. It's really, really splitty, the printed yarn bled considerably when washed (I swatched with the light blue solid), the fabric bloomed more than I expected under the weight of the finished garment and the ribbing also stretched out a bit too much at the bottom.

In spite of all that, I've worn this out in public a couple of times, and it really is nice to wear in hot Utah weather.

Mods

I added some shaping by decreasing at the back once I reached the bust, then added more decreases at the front under the bust. I like how nipping in the back with more decreases improves the fit overall. I then added some increases at the same rate for the front and back for the hips.

At the bottom, after doing a tubular bind off for 1x1 ribbing, I decided I didn't like the way the lace pattern looked, and the bind off edge was a little tight (a common problem with the tubular method). In the pattern as written, the lace is supposed to end about a 1/2 inch from the bottom.

I decided to rip back and move the lace pattern to the bottom of the ribbing instead, and use a k2tog bind off, which is both easier to work loosely and makes a stable edge to finish off the lace.

The ribbed ties and edging on Arisaig are creeping along at glacial pace. I also added a couple of short attention span projects to the mix: an entrelac scarf in Silk Garden and my first pair of socks (toe-up, stockinette mostly). More about all that later.

Updates, lots of updates

Between the demands of work, training and completing my first bicycle century and a recent death in the family, I've had the attention span of a stunned goldfish when it comes to knitting. And yes, I've also been neglecting my blogging duties.

Since I needed some easier knitting, I made Glampyre's One Skein Wonder out 2 skeins of Debbie Bliss Cathay I had the stash.
Other than compensating for a different gauge and making the border ribbing shorter than called for in the pattern (I was running out of yarn), I substituted Open Honeycomb stitch for seed stitch on the cap sleeves. What would I do without stitch dictionaries?

The sleeve details show up better in this photo.
Overall, I think the pattern is cute, easy and customizable. The shrug is a little tight under the arms due to the shortness of the border, but will probably stretch out over time. I also used Elizabeth Zimmermann's stretchy sewn bind-off. Other than being a little splitty, Cathay was actually pretty good to work with and I would use it again.

I also started another summer knit in bamboo yarn, also from the stash.



It's a crappy picture, I know. I'll post a new one soon once I finish the waist ribbing.