Spring Has Sprung
The Slink is ready to wear at the perfect time of year.
It looks like spring, doesn't it? I like this sweater. A lot. All of the things I couldn't figure out about it made perfect sense once I put it on. There are detail shots in the Gallery; BBMM gets credit for the photography.
Yarn & needles: Filatura Lanarota Summer Soft, 60% rayon 40% acrylic, color #221, 6 skeins. This is from my stash; I had a bag of 10. If I had to name the color, it would be Stormy Sky. The yarn was very easy to knit; there are many extremely thin plies, so I did snag a ply pretty frequently, but they pulled back in with ease. One strange thing about the yarn; it is completely different after it's washed. I knit a gauge swatch with a few different size needles, washed it, and settled on a size 6. While knitting on this size needle, the fabric felt really stiff, thick, and unyielding, almost like cardboard. After it's washed, it completely relaxes; it's still firmly knit, but it's soft and drapey, and almost feels like a lighter weight.
If I could do it over: I don't think I would change a thing. I generally would never knit the same garment twice, but I think I would with this one. The engineering is so intriguing to me that I'd love to see what would happen in a completely different yarn; I could see myself doing another one in the glittery yarn the author recommends.
It looks like spring, doesn't it? I like this sweater. A lot. All of the things I couldn't figure out about it made perfect sense once I put it on. There are detail shots in the Gallery; BBMM gets credit for the photography.
Pattern: The Slink, from Domiknitrix. I followed the pattern exactly, using the smallest size and the shorter length. Just yummy, yummy stuff. It was great simple knitting, while not as boring as plain stockinette. So many of the pattern details are just brilliant. The ribbing pulls in the waist with no shaping or short rows. The cute cap sleeves are knit directly onto the armholes with short rows and decreases, and they are shaped perfectly.
The yarn I used is very different than what is called for in the pattern, but both my stitch and row gauge matched perfectly, so I didn't need to adjust for that at all.
The body of this is very simple; the ribbing is a 6 row repeat, and the only shaping is for the armholes and neck. It was quick, simple, delightful movie-watching knitting. I finished, Kitchenered the side seam, and did the sleeves. For some reason, I could not comprehend how they were going to work. Between the picking up, short rows, decreases, working only the top half of the sleeve, and working side-to-side, I was just baffled. The directions weren't really difficult, it just isn't the "standard" way of doing things. It took until halfway through the first sleeve before I realized what was going on. Then, of course, it all seemed brilliant.
The hems are simple, but not standard. Again, easy to work with a detailed result.
Oh, and I was right about the pattern errata; she e-mailed back this weekend with the change. I fixed it differently than what she recommended, but it still worked fine. And she's sending me a tee for finding it!
Yarn & needles: Filatura Lanarota Summer Soft, 60% rayon 40% acrylic, color #221, 6 skeins. This is from my stash; I had a bag of 10. If I had to name the color, it would be Stormy Sky. The yarn was very easy to knit; there are many extremely thin plies, so I did snag a ply pretty frequently, but they pulled back in with ease. One strange thing about the yarn; it is completely different after it's washed. I knit a gauge swatch with a few different size needles, washed it, and settled on a size 6. While knitting on this size needle, the fabric felt really stiff, thick, and unyielding, almost like cardboard. After it's washed, it completely relaxes; it's still firmly knit, but it's soft and drapey, and almost feels like a lighter weight.
If I could do it over: I don't think I would change a thing. I generally would never knit the same garment twice, but I think I would with this one. The engineering is so intriguing to me that I'd love to see what would happen in a completely different yarn; I could see myself doing another one in the glittery yarn the author recommends.
Labels: FO's
