Two Tops at One Time

My dear friend Julie (the divine Ms. BoogaJ, RingMom extraordinaire) can walk through almost any yarn store and without even looking find herself petting something wonderful with alpaca in it. I can do the same thing with silk. If a yarn has silk in it or is a silk blend, you can be sure that I will be drawn to it. Silk, I think, has most of the luminosity of mohair without all the scratchiness.

It shouldn't come as much of a surprise then, when I purchased the Chai yarn from ArtFibers when I visited San Francisco. Chai is 100% Tussah Silk and very soft to the touch. The yarn itself has a handspun quality with thick and thin areas, and that gives the knitted fabric a little bit of a rustic textured quality. The texture, combined with the wonderful sheen of silk, provides a lot of spice for the standard stockinette routine.

I didn't plan to start the Chai top project in Ann Arbor because I had decided that the top would probably turn out a little too warm for summer (silk is also an excellent insulator for it's weight). I just wanted to show the yarn to Mom. But somewhere between working on the Confetti Tank Top and showing off my Chai stash acquisition I decided that I would "just cast on to see". And after I cast on, I just couldn't stop knitting. This stuff just makes my hands happy.

Chai Top: The Back

The design idea for this top is a little different than for the Biscotti top, although the same principle rule applied: it had to be able to go to work. Because I was in the mood to try out a series of different neckline styles, I envisioned this top to have a modest V-neck, little cap sleeves and a bit of a ruffle/frill at the bottom to add a feminine touch. The back is mostly bland except for the ruffle (that bit of aggressively red-orange yarn at the base of the piece is an invisible cast on that will be removed when I pick up stitches for the ruffle).

The color looks a little bit drab in this picture. Like the Biscotti, this Chai colorway (#16) is more subtle than brazen. It has deep mauves and sages and gunmetal blues that look mostly grey or grey/green until you get up closer to the fabric. The bright sunlight makes the colors look kind of muddy and rusty.

Chai #16 Swatch

I know I already posted a swatch shot, but I couldn't resist a photo coming from a much bigger piece that makes the texture stand out a bit. Chai's thick and thin qualities mean that when it knits up the fabric has irregular ripples and little islands that bubble out of the fabric.

Tonight was devoted to picking up stitches and working on the frill. The total number of stitches at the base is doubled for the ruffle, so I've been feeling like I'm "knitting in place" and getting nowhere, but I only have a few rows to go. I'm modifying the frill design a bit -- there's supposed to be another doubling of stitches (to almost 400) that I have decided not to do, mostly because I am not sure having that much fabric at my hips will be all that flattering. And also because I have a little creeping bit of "enough yarn" paranoia.

Not sure if I'll take a break from this and go back to the ribbon tank after the back is done. I'm just sort of letting my fingers lead me where I want to go lately. But it's a good bet that they'll be interested in wandering over more Chai.