Sunday, April 1, 2007

time for tea



Finally - the long-overdue FO post for the tea rose halter!
Pattern: Tea Rose Halter by Wenlan Chia from the spring '07 IK
Yarn: Brown Sheep's Cotton Fleece (held double) in provincial rose, a little over 2 skeins
Needles: Boye circular needles (from their convertible circular needle kit) #11 and #13
Modifications: none, except the yarn substitution

I finished knitting this what feels like ages ago! It took me forever to put the crochet-chain straps on (I ended up having them tie at the neck) and to find a time for J to take pictures for me.

This was my second lace project, and it was way easier than the last one for some reason. I was able to memorize the stitch pattern pretty quickly, and it just went really smoothly. It seemed to take a very long time to dry though - about 2-3 days. When I had finished knitting it, I noticed that although the bottom consisted of six repeats of the lace pattern and the top was five, they looked like they were about the same length. So I blocked it fairly early in the morning, laying it out on my bed, and pinned out the bottom. I had a brief moment of panic when bedtime rolled around, the thing was nowhere near dry, and J was less than enthused about the suggestion of breaking out our sleeping bags (can you believe him?). Luckily it didn't shrink back up when I took out the pins, and it finished drying at a leisurely pace on a cardboard box.



And after much hesitant decision-making, I decided to go with the ties, as in the pattern.











The back does seem to sag a bit, though, so maybe I'll end up anchoring those straps in the back somewhere.
Anyway, I'm still pretty pleased with it. My first adult-sized garment! I can't in all honesty call it a sweater, I suppose. I am so wearing it to my high school reunion this fall!