January 7, 2004
Back to Siena
After a brief battle between luxury and design, luxury won. Initially I was just going to get to the armhole shaping for the back of Siena and switch over to my bag, but once I got to the armholes that "almost to a milestone" instinct kicked in and I just had to finish the back.
The Back of Siena
Not such a good picture colorwise (I'm told digital cameras have a hard time with intense reds in indoor lighting conditions), but this is the back pinned down and ready for blocking. I didn't pin down the ruffle since I figured that ruffles, like ribbing, should probably just behave as comes naturaly to them. Like everything else I block, after pinning I just spritzed down the fabric with water from a little spray bottle. I guess you could call it wet blocking but I am definitely not soaking the fabric. Just getting it wet enough to relax a little. Then I turn the ceiling fan on in the yarn room and let chemistry and biology work their magic.
This project is proving to have a very different feel than the first project I did with Giotto -- Sally Melville's Simple and Sleeveless Top. The gauge in that pattern was about 4 stitches per inch. For this pattern, it's about 2-3/4 stitches/inch. The fabric is much drapy-er and doesn't have as much self-supporting structure as the top did. I suspect that gravity will have more affect on the behavior of this garment. Tina noted this about the pullover version of Siena in a comment to my previous post about the project, and I suspect that I will experience the same thing.
Big Stitches
The image above is a much better representation of the colors. It also demonstrates the looseness of the fabric. It's not particularly stretched, but you can still see my Spaceboard peeking out from behind.
Now I just have do decide whether to do a front or a sleeve next. Probably it will end up being one of the fronts followed by a sleeve. For some reason, I always get bogged down on that second sleeve and spacing the sleeves out with something different in between helps me not get quite as bored with the second sleeve.
Knit it,finish it,wear it !
It's so beautiful.The colours are stunning.I love the contrast between sheen and matt in Giotto.Absolutely delicious. ;-]
I love this shade of Giotto - last summer I knitted a tie-front cardi with it. Do take care of the sleeve length (if Sienna has long sleeves) as I found that it does s-t-r-e-t-c-h as it's worn. A beautiful drapey fabric, where the gauge really shows off the yarn in all it's matt & shiny glory, but a fabric that does tend to grow...
Those ruffles are going to look rather gorgeous though!
Jo
xxx
Theresa, for the sweater I have on needles now (for a year now, in fact), I'm knitting both fronts simultaneously, and may try the same with the sleeves. Do you ever do this, and why/why not? It's really heave on a bamboo straight as I now approach the armhole shaping, so possibly I'll switch to my new Denise set and maybe even one at a time.
Hey Theresa!
Just wanted to say happy new year. I'm terribly behind on my blog-reading (and writing)... ugh. I am, however, looking forward to knitting and felting a chicago bag (hopefully this weekend!). I got the pattern from The Boys over the holidays and can't wait to start!! Thanks for a great design!
Normally I would do the sleeves together, but in this pattern I'm knitting from two balls at once. Colinette varies a lot from skein to skein so if you just knit from one ball at a time you'd probably see noticeable areas of different colors. I'm not sure I could handle knitting from 4 balls of yarn at once for two sleeves... good thing this stuff knits quickly. At 4 rows to the inch you make a lot of progress fast!
i adore the colors in this! can't wait to see it done.
i think i'm gonna treat myself to some yarn tomorrow morning before going to the doctor. it seems only fitting to get something new to work on needles when they're gonna stick me with needles!
Waow ! This a quick one ! And it looks gorgeous... I think you should definitely knit a sleeve straight away ; it would be a pity to experience Second Sleeve Syndrome for this sweater...