Monday, August 07, 2006

The Trials and Tribulations of Knitting Clothing

I don't knit a lot of clothing. This is probably the reason I don't exactly know what size I should be knitting when I knit clothing. For example, remember that Mod Dress from Knit 1? The size options were: 32, 36, and 40" across the bust. Now, my bust technically is about 39" across, so it made sense to me to make the 40" size. While making the Roundabout Leaf Tank, I realized that I should be knitting a MUCH smaller size than I originally anticipated. I joined the piece when it had reached only 31 inches across. I kept testing it as I was knitting it around to make sure the fit was the way I wanted it to be. So it appears as though I've realized the wonders of negative ease!

This kind of sucks because the Mod Dress is already complete. The seams are seamed, it's all together - it would be ready to wear if I weren't so damn thin. I got some amazing advice while I was at The Point tonight from Illana. She suggested that instead of re-knitting the dress from scratch that I just seam the edges in a bit. I'm not sure if it will really work because it'd be such a large difference, but it's worth a shot before I un-seam and completely un-knit the whole garment. I'm soo sad. I was so excited to wear it!

In the meantime, I'm knitting the Roundabout Leaf Tank like a fiend. Here's where I am on it:

Roundabout Leaf tank


I'm on the third roundabout, and I'm thinking of starting to do the decreases sometime soon, but I really just need to sit down and do some math to figure out where I need to start the decreasing. I might just knit my heart out until then.

I still haven't even really read the new Interweave Knits, but I've already found another project that I'm planning on knitting:

Future project


The Bianca Jacket...

(you can all stop oohing and aahing now...I haven't started it yet!)
at 22:44

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ooh, the Lorna's, the Lorna's! That stuff is like butta. I'm sorry about the Mod dress--knitting things too big is so disappointing, I hate it when I do that (and I have done it rather a lot) :0

8/8/06 12:35
Rebecca said...

Oh! That's really so sad about the Mod Dress! I really feel like you could probably take it in. Perhaps even take it to a taylor?

8/8/06 13:10
carrie said...

oh, i'm sorry about the dress! will it be possible to take it in, since it has the flower at the seam? can you shrink it in the wash? or block it? that's a shame. but the leaf tank is looking great.

8/8/06 21:57
illanna said...

I forgot about the flower in the seam. It might still work though. I LOVE that color of lion and lamb- what a gorgeous project. Your roundabout tank is really coming along! I might go to the Point tomorrow- I'll give you a call during the day.

8/8/06 23:32
schrodinger said...

I struggle to get my head around the negative ease thing, it's confusing, and frustrating when you put all that work into something which ends up being too big. That Lorna's Laces is going to make a fabulous Bianca Jacket.

13/8/06 12:57

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