Summer Knitting

Well, I've finished a few things. I know I should put pics up of things in progress and beginning but I tend to launch into new things and then don't think of taking a picture until it is nearly done and then I wait until it IS done usually. I'll try to beat this bad habit.

Anyhoo -- I finished another summer top. I really like it. The top half is knit and the bottom is crochet granny squares.

Now I started this ages ago and I was a slightly larger size then so the granny squares are a tad loose and since they are so structured it may not be the absolute height of flattery but I still really like the overall look.

I was fighting a top down seamless saddle shoulder idea from Barbara Walker's book Knitting From the Top for a sweater for my DH and it wasn't really entirely sunk in my brain so I did it again for this top. I think I have it now. I rewrote the directions in my own private language and put it into my knitting notebook. Fun to do really, once I finally understood. Since I had saddle shoulders I put cables down those and continued them down the short sleeves -- and I was playing so I didn't border the cables with purl stitches. I like the more subtle effect for this top.

I finished the sleeves with small 1.5" granny squares to pick up the bottom half.

The neck is a V and instead of ribbing I did more small cables.

As usual with my incredibly poor photography skills this looks better in person. Well, I think it does. There is a stretch in the stitches which this pic oh so cleverly picks up in a lovely spot light kind of way. I'm not exactly sure how I managed to get that . . . I seemed to be picking up evenly and when I worked that cable nothing seemed tight. Ah well.

Oh! The yarn!! I made it out of GGH's Safari. It's a very unusual yarn really. It's kind of tubular and knits up a tad open. Very airy and soft. Linen is coated by acrylic. A bit different to knit with too. No life or spring of course and that throws me for a bit until I get into the groove. After that it all flowed nicely. It is one reason why I didn't purl much though. I hate to rib and my ribbing usually shows off that dislike. :) The sample swatch I made for the shop shows that the yarn really shows up texture pattern well. The color I choose hides rather a bit, but then I don't like paler shades in general so I force the dark shades to have pattern anyway. :)

Overall it is a lightweight top. The crochet bottom is heavier -- partly because it is crochet granny squares and partly because I wanted it dense so I used a C hook and made them, well, dense. The top was done to the 5spi gauge -- and the sleeves a bit looser since I am playing with doing sleeves on one needle larger for a lighter, cooler feel.

Off I go back to work and I promise to take more pics (IF the camera and I are still on speaking terms).

Happy Knitting and keep cool if possible!

~Briony