Thursday, July 3, 2008

Me Do Redo

Have you ever had a pattern that absolutely called out to you? For me, it's Eastlake, from Norah Gaughan Vol 3. As soon as I saw it, I knew I just had to make it. I stalked my LYS for the booklet, and when it arrived, I picked it up as soon as I could. I poked around in the store for awhile and found a lovely yarn--Cascade Venezia. It's a blend of merino and silk and knits up like a dream!

I started on the front first because that's where most of the action is. There are a few minor errors, but nothing to detract from the project:
    The pattern doesn't tell you when to switch to the larger needles after having cast on with smaller needles. I'm assuming it's the same as the instructions given for the back

    The pattern essentially calls for 8 rows of ribbing for the front and only 7 rows for the back, so this has to be adjusted one way or the other

    Row 17 of the leaf pattern has a missing yo

Here's what I have so far:


I did think far enough in advance to cast on 2 sts less than the pattern suggests so that the k2p2 ribbing both starts and ends with a k2 for easier seaming. The pattern panel is really beautiful and fun to knit. The thing is, I decided that those yarn overs on either side of the "stalk" will be too revealing to be able to wear to work without another layer underneath. I wouldn't be opposed to fixing this by dropping a whole lotta stitches, but then there are also the decreases across the last row of ribbing. If you look to the left of the pattern panel, you can hardly notice where I did decreases because I tucked them into the purl ribs. But if you look to the right...


...it's a lot more obvious because 2 of the decreases had to be done on the knit ribs, and I don't like it. I'm going to go back and redistribute the decreases a little differently than the pattern suggests so that all of the decreases will fall in the purl ribs.

Also slated for frogging is Fifi. I mentioned before that I was going to frog back to fix some sizing issues, but I never got around to it. I'm actually going to frog all the way back because I also don't like how the neck curls and a crochet edge doesn't entirely take care of it. I like the pattern well enough, though, to work on it again and don't plan to abandon it.

5 comments:

  1. Ooh - Eastlake, Eastlake. The stitch definition in the Venezia is marvelous. I will be keeping eyes peeled as it progresses! My LYS dropped me a line to let me know their Berroco Fall booklets were in, I'll be snapping some up this weekend!

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  2. Ooh, your Eastlake is going to be gorgeous! I find that whenever someone decides to do a pattern fresh out of the gate, they are always the one to spot the pattern errors- and ther eare so fwe patterns that are completely error-free right out of the gate! So thanks for sharing your comments on it so far.

    - Julie

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  3. I love Eastlake in the Venezia! Do you feel like you're test-knitting it? :-)

    (As an aside, Berroco books with Norah Gaughan's patterns are much more appealing now - something to anticipate)

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  4. The venezia looks great so far for that pattern--those leaves really "pop!" I'm anxious to see the final product!

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  5. Eastlake has found its way to the topo of my que. Looking forward to doing it in the fall.

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