Oriental blouse
Finished
April 13, 2015
August 8, 2015

Oriental blouse

Project info
Shanghai Surplice by Annie Modesitt
Knitting
TopsSleeveless Top
myself
s
Needles & yarn
US 6 - 4.0 mm
22 stitches and 30 rows = 4 inches
in Stockinette Stitch Intarsia
786 yards = 6 skeins
Garnstudio DROPS Cotton Merino
1 skein = 131.0 yards (119.8 meters), 50 grams
Dyed by Alfinete
April 10, 2015
Garnstudio DROPS Cotton Merino
1 skein = 131.0 yards (119.8 meters), 50 grams
Dyed by Alfinete
April 10, 2015
Garnstudio DROPS Cotton Merino
3 skeins = 393.0 yards (359.4 meters), 150 grams
Dyed by Alfinete
April 10, 2015
Garnstudio DROPS Cotton Merino
1 skein = 131.0 yards (119.8 meters), 50 grams
Dyed by Alfinete
April 10, 2015
Notes

2015-04-13
Got the yarn. Maybe I’ll manage to start swatching today?

2015-04-14
Definitely not doing the intarsia thing. Too much trouble. I’ll have to learn how to embroider using duplicate stitch (it’s supposed to be very easy). And hope that the yarn is adequate for that purpose.

2015-04-16
Swatch embroidered. Duplicate stitch is very easy and straightforward; so are the French knots. Great practicing tool! Now I just have to wash and block and hope for the best.

GAUGE
Prewash:
3,75 mm: 23,5 * 32
4 mm: 23 * 30

After hand wash, drying flat and afterwards hanging
3,75 mm: 22 (-6%) * 32 (0%)
4 mm: 22 (-4%) * 30,5 (0%)

So I first tried the 3,75 mm needles. And I also thought: I don’t want it to be so short, so I’ll just add some rows. Wrong. If you want to add rows to get a longer blouse, you’ll have to compensate the number of stitches being picked up to shape the left armhole. So I frogged it and started all over again. With the 4,00 mm needle. I’m going to try to conjugate the length and number of picked up stitches of a larger size of the one I’m knitting.

2015-04 Notes on the project:

  • added 4 more rows on the horizontal scroll: 2 at the beginning and 2 at the end, to add some length;
  • check the vertical (row) gauge often.
  • horizontal i-cord: to prevent the background colour to show up on the stitches of the i-cord, on the ssk (I do SKP instead, always) I slipped the stitch knit wise and knitted the next stitch through the back loop.
  • body size before arm holes: I made a larger (longer) size. But the arm holes were done in size S. I compensated for the difference picking up more stitches for the left front size (me and Math are good friends) and then decreasing the number of stitches for the left arm hole until I got the stitches indicated for the S size.
  • the horizontal scroll at the bottom is way too wide. If I could do it again, I could choose for this part a smaller size

2015-06-08
This pattern definitely has some issues. The “scroll bar” at the front leaves way too much fabric at the bottom, even after blocking; I had to sew it up, it was sagging! It should have some kind of decreases as you work it upwards, to make that curve.
Now I’m embroidering. That will keep me occupied for some while. It’s actually fun and relaxing.

2015-07-31
Embroidery done, yea \o/ (it really didn’t take me all that long, I just hadn’t the time and worked on it only once a week, at most!)
Finishing the armholes, neckband and lower band.

2015-08-03
Almost done with the finishing. I will have to sew the lower scroll bar in at some places, because it’s way too wide for my taste. Maybe my gauge was off?
I did the collar lower than the pattern required: instead of 10 rows I knitted 6.

The instructions for the collar are not that clear. There are these stitches from the back that you had put on a scrap yarn that aren’t mentioned, ever again. So you start thinking: when the author says “pick up 60 sts evenly distributed by both collar openings”, you go, “what about the 30 sts from the back? Do these count toward these 60 picked up sts”? I guess not. So I literally cramped up 30 sts on each side of the collar opening and hoped for the best. And ignored the math that appears afterward (“put 3 sts on scrap yarn, 57 st remain.” No way, that’s not going to happen, because of the back sts).

2015-08-07
Completed. It’s not worth all the trouble. Despite doing it longer, it’s still too short. And it’s way too wide at the bottom. Even after sewing some partes in. So I’m adding a little elastic and see if it improves.

2015-08-08
After sewing the elastic and Washing and blocking, it turned out quite well, it’s wearable, hurray! And I found one tree that hasn’t the flowers, yet.

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Finished
April 13, 2015
August 8, 2015
About this pattern
7 projects, in 26 queues
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About this yarn
by Garnstudio
DK
50% Cotton, 50% Merino
120 yards / 50 grams

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  • Originally queued: January 6, 2015
  • Project created: April 13, 2015
  • Finished: August 7, 2015
  • Updated: July 14, 2016
  • Progress updates: 5 updates