Eleanor's Pattern of the Weeeeeeeeeek - 3528

I've had two weeks off pattern of the week! Two whole weeks! One week because I was on holiday and the next week because I was catching up from my holiday, I was too busy in the shop and I couldn't think of what to so. I still kinda can't think what to do because I haven't got the best photos of this one and I haven't got a yoga pose but I wanted to redress the crochet/knit imbalance so I'm settling for this and some timed selfies. Beautiful. I'm talking about 3528.

I've always loved this little t-shirt. If you know me you know I love a knitted t-shirt. They're an easy way of looking a bit smarter than a general t-shirt but still cool and comfortable to wear on days like this. For the longest time I couldn't work out what yarn to make it with. You know I love the Bamboo Cotton more than life itself but I've made so much stuff with that it sometimes feel a bit like a cop out. Not that long ago the lovely Jean came and took the Crimson (actually a beautiful, deep, Mexican-y type orange - stupid King Cole) to make herself a version. And seeing the photos and then the thing in real life made me need to cast it on.

 

Jean is a fabulously fearless knitter. I love it when she comes in because if she loves it, she'll do it, no messing. She was half way through this and wanting to start it again in the Opium which I just thought was the best idea evah. I wouldn't have done a year ago, it wasn't until the newer patterns (from 4178 onwards) for the Opium came in that I realised that patterning - cables and lace - looks great in the Opium. So I wasn't fearless then. There's a balance though isn't there? Doing something a bit out there and fabulous could turn out brill or terrible so you have to work out how much work/money it will be and whether that's something that would be worth the chance of it turning out like a nightmare. Yeah?

Anyway, Jean chose the Cobalt for her Opium which is very her. But before we settled on the final thing we'd been through the Purple and the Peacock so they were all on the table just hanging around looking FIT! It was also the week that I'd practiced putting the tent together to prove to Chris it could be done in 15 minutes so apparently that colour combo was on my mind. Camouflaged knitting photo:

 

Now, if you remember from the holiday blog post I wrote, I went sincerely wrong with this pattern. The problem is that I'm a cocky sod who thinks I know what I'm doing. So, if you've been following the Pattern of the Week blog posts from the beginning you'll remember right back at the beginning I was talking about leaf shaped lace patterns and how they always come back to one number and are offset by another leaf getting fatter then the first leaf gets smaller. This one is something different. Slightly. One set of the leaves goes back to one stitch and one set goes back to two stitches. Which means that at the end of each leaf, you have to know whether you're working the leaves that end on two or one stitch. Not a problem if you're not a cocky bogger - I on the other hand 'fixed' the problems numerous times only realising that they didn't need to be 'fixed' when I got to the end of the next leaf and the were the opposite kind. Gah! So this top tip comes back to, read the pattern!

My other top tip is, feel free to make garments written to be made on the flat in the round. That's what I did. I popped a marker in to denote the beginning of the round and the half way point and got on with my life. Much less purling (although I don't hate purling and everybody should just learn to suck it up because it's like yin and yang, booze and fags). You need to think about whether it's appropriate - if you're making a big old cabled thing, or something in something very slippery like silk or bamboo then you might not want to do this - the seam there can provide some much needed support. But for me, in this top which is lacy and in a light weight cottonish thing with no sleeves and very little yarn, I went straight ahead and knitted it in the round. Only stopping when the arm openings happened when I split the stitches into half, left half of them on hold and followed the pattern as it was written before casting off and doing the other half.

I doubt you'll be wondering, but if you are, I lost the pattern at about half way up the sleeves so I did my own thing at the top which was my favourite and ridiculously bloody easy slash neck which is basically just cast off straight and then when you're ready sew the shoulders together from the outside in so you can try it on and work out if the neck works for you. It does work for me.

One day I might get a proper photo or two done. But not today. I have the shop to tidy - can you tell?

And again, if you're wondering, and I doubt you are, the two t-shirts have met and they like eachother.

 

OOOOOOOOOF! WHAT COLOURS!

I hope that's enough of a pattern of the week post. I'm hoping for something a bit different next week but I haven't got very far on it so maybe not. We'll see.

Love Eleanor. xxxxx

P.s. I'm trying to proof read this (as much as I ever do) but I haven't got anything that's easy enough to knit/crochet and read so tough tits, have my spelling/grammar mistakes.