I decided to knit a camisole for Stitches West, and I finished just in the nick of time! How close was I cutting it? Well, it was blocking in the backseat on the drive up!
I wore it around on the Friday, although it wasn’t very noticeable, as I wore either a jacket or a shawl over it most of time. Actually, I inadvertently served as a walking MimKnits and Sensual Knits ad for part of the day, since I wore my Cleopatra Wrap.
Anyway, back to the camisole. It’s comfy, and cute, and I love it despite its little quirks!
(Wow, my wall looks really bright here. That’s not too true to color. But at least the camisole is! Okay, not quite, but it’s fairly close.)
Pattern:
Demeter Camisole by Miriam L. Felton (published in Sensual Knits)
Yarn:
Brooks Farm Acero, unspecified color
Needles:
US2 / 2.75mm Knitpicks nickel-plated circulars
My row gauge was spot on, but my stitch gauge was different – I really liked the fabric at 28 stitches/4 inches! However, the pattern calls for 23 stitches over 4 inches. So I used the stitch counts for the large size and the row counts for extra-small (due to my height, or lack thereof).
Due to how the pattern’s written, this worked really well for the most part. But, I forgot to account for my gauge difference when I knit on the edging. So the edging’s too long for the bottom circumference, giving me more of a ruffled effect. I actually like it, but it’s not what the pattern called for.
Speaking of the edging, it also curls a bit. A couple of other knitters on Ravelry seem to have this problem as well. I’m not sure how that could have been avoided – any ideas?
Also, there’s an error within the large size. (Although it may just be in my edition of the book, because as far as I’ve seen, no one else has encountered it.) The error is either the number of stitches to bind off for the armholes, or where to split the neckline in front – I’m not entirely sure which.
If you bind off 32 stitches for each armhole, and do the appropriate decreases, you end up with 84 stitches in the front. However, the pattern then tells you to divide for the neckline after slipping two and knitting 47. This would be appropriate if you bind off 18 stitches for each armhole (which the three smaller sizes call for). But if you’ve bound off 32, 49 stitches total would take you off center.
Given my build and my gauge, I definitely did not want to bind off only 18 stitches for each armhole. So for the neckline split, I slipped two, then knit 40.
Finally, I probably could have made the straps a tiny bit shorter, but I can definitely live with them as they are.
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