Soleil is Done!

Blue Soleil, for Project Spectrum

And it fits! It's form-fitting but not too tight, and the armholes are perfect. I tried it on before blocking and it's not too short. This is my first attempt at blocking. It's hard to see the pins in the photo. It looks a little wonky, but it's still wet, so I may re-shape it later. I spun it out in the washer and it does not look as smooth as I'd like. Will it look better when it dries? It's knit with Elann Sonata. Does anyone have any advice?

Soleil Update

I'll probably get this done by the end of the month for Project Spectrum, but I think it's going to be too short. As you can see, the back is finished and the front left side is almost done. The right front is on waste yarn. I added a few rows at the bust line in an attempt to lengthen it, but should have added some at the waist and perhaps a couple of extra rows of the lace pattern at the bottom. (The bottom half inch is curled, and not truncated as it appears in the photo.) Otherwise, it's a perfect fit: the extra inch of negative ease was right on target. Other knitters have made the armhole higher - I decided to knit them the size of another tank that fits me well. Knitting it in the round has been fun and fast and will happily reduce the amount of seaming necessary. I also enjoyed watching the tank become a shapely object while working in the "darts." I will probably frog this in the end, but at least it's a fast knit.

Fall?

After all my bleating yesterday* about being behind, I got my s___ together and started Soleil. I forgot that the yarn I chose is blue, the color for Project Spectrum this month. DUH! Here's my progress:

Of course I haven't cleaned or done laundry or anything else since I started it yesterday. I'm building in one inch of negative ease, but forgot to lengthen it as per Heather's instructions. Heather says she tries her projects on often, but I'm knitting Soleil in the round on a 29 or 30 inch circ, so there's no way I can try it on until I get to the straps. If I have to frog it won't be the first time.

I was going to make a felted M-D Buttonhole bag for Project Spectrum this month, but my felted swatch looks like a dog bed.

(*I read Erica's blog yesterday in which she writes about knitting for the fall. PANIC! I have to face the fact that I can't keep up with Project Spectrum, at least in terms of projects. I haven't made any of the summer tanks I wanted. I've swatched and washed, but haven't started them yet. Socks are stalled. Haven't touched the Habu yarn. Haven't even swatched for the corset tank or the Socks that Rock. Mermaid is progressing nicely, the body is nearly done but I discovered a dropped stitch so will have to rip back six rows or so. Seriously thinking of putting it aside for awhile to knit the summer projects. Work and life interfere too much. I really admire those of you who have finished summer tops in a week or two. How do you do it? Baby projects are the newest projects I've taken up. A work colleague is due in August and I'd like to give her a few knitted gifts, so I'm making a few things from Mason-Dixon Knitting. They are purple so maybe I will meet next month's Project Spectrum goals after all.)

Not much to report except some stash enhancement: I bought most of this at Yarns International in Bethesda, Maryland.




The brick and mortar is closing, but not the online presence. Everything in the store is 30 percent off. By the time I got there Saturday morning, most of the Koigu, the small-sized Addis, and sock yarn were gone. I bought two skeins of Meilenweit Mega Boots Stretch, a hank of purple Koigu, Nashua Creative Focus Cotton in yellow, some t-pins for blocking, a pair of Addi Naturas, and some back issues of Interweave Knits. I was particularly pleased to find the books. While I was there, a buzz went through the store that Eunny Jang might be in the store. Don't know if she was actually present while I was there or if someone simply noticed that she'd signed up for the store's e-mail list. The store staff rather excitedly said that she had been a customer all that time and that they didn't know it! Eunny the StealthKnitter! Too late! You're already famous!

I swatched Adrienne Vittadini and Elan Sonata for Soleil on my commute, now I have to wash and block them. I started a M-D facecloth in allhemp3, but I'm not sure I like this yarn for this facecloth because the pattern is ill-defined. Maybe I should have used a smaller needle. Too bad that didn't occur to before I was halfway finished. I'm just maintaining this week. Anyway, I bought two hanks to make the facecloth and haven't begun to use the second one yet, so maybe I'll cast it on with smaller needles to see if I like it better and if it significantly reduces in dimension.

Haven't worked on the Filatura di Crosa shrug for a couple of weeks. I'm definitely a novice crocheter: the squares aren't consistent in size and I'm afraid it's going to look "homemade" rather than chic like the pattern book model. So before I use up all my beautiful Zara, I'm going to sew together and block the squares I've crocheted so far to see how it looks. If it looks OK, I will continue, if not, it's off to the frog pond.

It's getting late in the month, but I may try to make an M-D felted handbag for Project Spectrum. I had not been drawn to felted bags until I saw these on the M-D KAL. They are so cute!

Late breaking: I've been accepted into the Knitting Blogs Ring! Yea, me!