Little Purl of the Orient

Meet Kate!

Kate is done! Here it is looking kind of strange on my bay window.

I knitted the neckband in the rounds and reduced a total of 10 stitches as Clara has mentioned that there are just too many stitches to fit the cast-off edges. I had to sew on the neckband twice as I made a mistake with the neck shaping and one side turned out longer (probably due to late night knitting) when I tried it on. And what horrors confronted me when I had it on. Even though I knitted the smallest size and the gauge was right, it still looked loose on me. Nothing close to the beautiful fit of the other knitalongers.

For the brave hearts, click here.

So, who was I trying to kid when I thought I could pull off in a halter top? It really tested the patience of my husband who tried so hard to get an angle that didn't expose my awfully bony shoulders in the photo. Having said that, I still love the design and the ASC. Give me another chance, I'll eat more and fatten myself up. I'm wearing it today safely under a cream colour cardigan and it's better that way.

Tanks, shells, tanks

On my mind these days are tanks, shells and more tanks. Bought the Spring/Summer issue of Vogue Knitting the other day and fell in love with the designs. The cover page tank by Adrienne Vittadini is lovely, the diamond patch sweater would be fun to knit, the lacy shawl-collared jacket and the shell in wavy lace pattern would just be perfect to wear to the office. And I am attracted to the interestingly constructed one-shoulder halter top featured in Gedifra's latest Highlights #41. I've got to get this magazine too.

Meanwhile, Kate is going along very well, thanks to the support of fellow knitalonger, Clara who is really kind in sharing her experience in making her Kate. I've finished the back. As my edge stitches are always rather uneven, starting from the raglan decreases, I've decided to go for the chain selvedge by slipping the first stitch purlwise and knitting the last stitch. The right-hand selvedge looks neat but the left-hand side didn't work as nicely. Probably it's because of the slip 1 purlwise follow by a purl stitch. I'll try to work figure it out for the front.

Half Back of Kate

Presenting the back of Kate in Grape ASC.

Well, uh, actually just half of the back. It looks a bit different from those knitted in solid colour, yes? The ribbing by the side is not quite as obvious but I kind of like it like this too. I've used the tubular cast on for the ribbing which gives an elastic edge. I normally need to go down one needle size for the first row to get a neater look and I forgot that for less elastic yarns like cotton, I should have used needles two sizes down. At this juncture, I am trying to work out the raglan decreases. Oh dear, do I need to work in a chain selvedge?

Bonjour Kate!

Bonjour Kate!
I've joined the Kate-Along!

Both kids went to bed early last night and I had some quiet time and worked on it right away in the purplish Rowan ASC. The 11 cm of ribbing was all done and I'm now at the body part. This is my first foray into French knitting pattern. Going through the pattern, my French took me only to the point before the raglan shaping, anything beyond that is still a mystery to me. But feeling unusually courageous and motivated by Clara's beautiful finished tank, I plunged in right away. I'll try to figure it out as I go along, that's the fun of knitting, isn't it? Had wanted to snap a quick shot of the WIP this morning before going to work but the memory card is full, so I'll try to do it tomorrow morning.

This is the second time I'm working with ASC and can't stop singing praises of it. The handle is marvelous and doesn't split like the Online cotton yarn I'm using for Chung Yi's dress. While I knit, I was already pondering whether to buy the remaining 5 balls of ASC in an orangey 'printed' colourway at the LYS.