This is Where I Go On and On About a Sweater

Two weeks, $24, and a little netflix for audio was all it took to make this Lady Bat sweater by Teresa Gregorio.  It didn’t require any modifications or fiddling and even though I have made one before, I never found myself bored with the lace.  I just love it.

I don’t know what I was thinking, but for some reason I knit this entirely with size 1 circulars.  I wanted to knit just the sleeve ribbing with them, but then I guess I was so used to using them, I kept going.  I had planned to switch to 3s for the body like I did on the first Lady Bat.  Thank goodness this is a very forgiving pattern and it all turned out fine.  I probably subconsciously adjusted my tension to be like the first top.  In fact, I must have because I almost ran out of yarn, literally using every scrap of the Shine Sport that I had.

This is where I make a confession:  I tied a few long scraps together to have enough for the bottom ribbing and bind off.  Other than the fear of running out of yarn, this was a pretty uneventful knit.  I bragged about my newfound lace skills a couple of days ago then screwed up so royally I wasted a day trying to fix it.  I was probably asking for that.

Otherwise, this top was a smooth knit.  I used 8 skeins of Shine Sport in Willow on size 1s (though I don’t recommend that needle size to anyone).  I have seen lace summer sweaters in stores, though none I liked this much or with such a unique shape.  I notice, with store bought lace knit sweaters, the quality is just not there.  I love that I can really wear this and machine wash it too.

This sweater is knit from one side to the other, with the bottom ribbing picked up and knit afterward.  The construction keeps it interesting.  I want to reiterate that I found it best to check that the stitches next to the markers are correct before beginning another round, at least until you’re confident with the lace pattern.

The only thing I did differently from the pattern was to reduce the amount of stitches I picked up for the bottom band by 8 because I usually have trouble getting ribbing to be tight enough.

This is where I post more photos than you really want to see just because I like them:

This is where I say something fashiony:   It’s the quintessential summer sweater!  But, it really is.  I got a nice, even chevron pattern by knitting lace rows 7-12  more loosely than the others.  Isn’t the chevron lace the best?

I’m glad I made one of my own.  I’m going to take it on vacation so that we have to go “out” a few nights.  Our vacations are usually what you could call rustic…or sweaty, so we dress for it.  Except last year when we went to Dollywood and the Dixie Stampede.  I actually wore real clothes for that but my pants got so wet on a ride at Dollywood that I had to buy the least tacky, cheap something I could find in a gift shop to wear to the Stampede.  Turned out the least tacky, cheap thing I could find was a pair of frayed-edge, black bike shorts with “Dolly” screen printed in big gold letters up the leg.  Oh well, I thought, after the live music, the Stampede will be a dark, dinner arena.  This anonymity I thought I would enjoy  was totally blown when my husband and I were chosen to get out on the floor for races.  Somewhere on my computer, there is a blurry cell phone photo of a “Dolly” fan riding a stick horse like a freak as a souvenir of that night out.

Why did I get off on that subject?  Oh yes, because this will be fun to wear out.  That’s all.