A Notorious Knit

Finished knitting my "Notorious" top in time for WWKIP day yesterday. It was a hit! And most importantly I love the way it came out. So many people seem to have had trouble with this pattern, but the little flaws in the book really didn't bother me very much. There are a couple silly pattern errors, however, I don't think it should be enough to put you off of knitting this if you really want to. Here are my notes on it:

"Notorious" from Romantic Hand Knits by Annie Modesitt

• 5/28/08 – Finally got around to this pattern! Yay! Crossing my fingers that I don’t have too much trouble. I see that a number of people have run into snags on this pattern.

• 5/28/08 (nearly 5 min. later) – Found the first snag. The center cable panel (over 17 sts) should actually have a 6 st R & L cable running through it and not 4 as the symbol index and stitch guide indicates. Easy fix, though.

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• 5/29/08 – I’ve noticed that people had a tough time with making the eyelets in chart “C” the same size. One side of the chart the yo is followed by a purl and the other side the yo is followed by a knit. This was my solution:
Chart C (Bias Nondecrease panel)
Rnd 1: p, ssk, k3, ktbl, yo, p2, k2, p2, yo, k4, k2tog, p1

Rnd 2: p1, k5, k1 and leave on left needle, purl through this and next p st, drop st from left needle, p1, k2, p2, k6, p1

On my piece this make both yos pretty much even :)

• 6/1/08 – Knitting is coming along good. Hopefully it fits me in the end! Most are saying the pattern runs big, but I think mine looks a tad small. Mostly it’s that I see myself as bigger and the top will probably be fine. We shall see….. The decreases for the body are complete.

• 6/9/08 – I’m up to the front armhole and bust shaping. Going pretty dern fast! If I wasn’t knitting so many other projects…… this would have been done by now.

Did notice something odd in length/size.
Under the “Upper Waist Shaping” section it’s saying to continue knitting “until piece measures 18.75 (19.25, 19.5, 20, 20.75, 21.5)” from cast-on (or desired length to armholes.” This part of the pattern should be ending under the bust. The garment is waist, or hip length. I, for one, do not measure almost 19” from under my bust to my hips. That’s really long.

• 6/14/08 – Finished and I love it!
Made the sleeve shorter than called for by stopping when the instructions called for switching to the largest (8) needles. That would be after the first set of short rows had been completed.

Birthday

Today was the unveiling of my Moonlight Mystic Nights shawl (Mystic Light by Anna Dalvi). Way back when I started it, or really before that, I had this great fantasy of making mom a lace shawl. Great idea. I gave myself plenty of time with this one since the KAL started in March and her birthday is today (June 7). Even with all that time I was starting to think I was never going to finish it, but I did have it done by the end of May. I spent the time since then just itching to present it to her. Soooooo hard to resist the temptation to grab the shawl and give it to her right then. But I did and now she's got it and is very pleased. Ain't it nice when your handknits are well received? Mom is always a good handmade gift recipient.

I have too many things on the needles! Argh! They are: Notorious by Annie Modesitt, Butterfly Dress from Rowan, a never ending Clapotis, and a shrug of my own design.
Notorious is moving along at a steady pace. It's a pretty simple knit, although the book says it's complex. I think it's listed as either an intermediate or advanced pattern..... Not sure. There are a few errors in the book (Romantic Hand Knits), so you have to watch for that and definitely check Ravelry or Annie's Web site for pattern corrections.

My clapotis is never ending. I swear, I might be working on this up until I die. It's kinda a fun, easy to remember pattern, but it also get pretty boring. I find it perfect for Saturday Starbucks knitting group gatherings. You can have a conversation and still manage to not mess it up. Unfortunately that's the only time I work on the clap. It's very pretty on fingering weight yarn (Seacoast Panda in colorway Colorado).

The Butterfly Dress is almost done! I should be finishing it right now, it's so close.... Just have to finish one little piece of the back neck decrease and do the straps, which are really short. Besides that there's just picking up around the armholes and neck for a little edging.

The shrug is the most frustrating because I'm designing it. And not only am I designing it, but I'm trying to write the pattern in several different sizes. Why? Because I obviously enjoy self torture. No really, I thought it would be fun to learn knitwear design. I have this mad plan to write a book (Cue manic laughter now) based on the family band.... A section for each family member with patterns inspired by each, some recipes, and stories about traveling as a family band, knitting, etc. If I could actually get together what I have in my head it would be awesome. I'm not looking for a book deal or anything, just something to get together for myself. I'll arrange it all nice and put it in a binder or something. And if the patterns are decent I'll get them up in my Ravelry and FiddleKnits Etsy shops.