What to do with some pale mint green 2ply

A few weeks ago I pulled a skein of Mayhem and Chaos Polwarth/silk/cashmere out of my stash and started thinking about what to do with it.  I wasn’t 100% sure about the colour (it came from a yarn club years ago).  I got onto pinterest and started looking at photos containing that colour so I could determine what I liked and what I didn’t.  My conclusion was it was a background colour and needed something bright in the foreground to set it off.

With this in mind I decided that whatever I made had to be plain so that it could be worn with brightly coloured scarves or jewellery.
I’m most of the way through making a top with it.   I’m using the Mohair Minimalist pattern but I’ve added bust and hip shaping so that it doesn’t pull anywhere.  This one has a lower neckline than my mohair one and my tension is 16st/10cm instead of the 14 I used last time making it a little bit less see through.  It is fitting really well and working out just as I wanted it to be.

Here are a few shots with scarves so you can see what I had in mind…

 

A Cardi from the 199Os

Still a favourite to wear to work

Why measuring all the way around doesn’t always work.

Patterns generally say to fit bust 34 or 36 etc however the woman with a 36″ bust could have a very different shape to the woman standing beside her with the same measurement.  Look at bra sizes, a woman who is measured with a full bust of 36″ could be a 36A/14A or a 32D/10D or even a 28FF/6FF (yes that is a real size).  The frame size isn’t taken into account if you just use the bust measurement.

If however you measure your back and front separately the woman in the 36A may find her back is 17.5″ and her front is 18.5″, the woman in the 28FF would be more likely to have a back measurement of 14″ and a front measurement 22″.  Should they be wearing the same size?  No.  The petite girl needs to make a much smaller size and adjust the front to fit.  If she has a flat tummy she would need a full bust adjustment, if she also has a tummy she may have a size difference between front and back at her waist and hip too  which would mean choosing  a different size front to the size she chooses for the back.  The trick is then to use the vertical measurements from only one size so the pieces match and ensure you reduce enough for the shoulders to match.

This photo shows what happens if you choose a size that you fit into without taking the differences into account.  The side seams pull forward pulling the whole thing out of shape so that there is enough room all round.

curve – where the seam sits, straight(ish) line where it should sit.

Remember we are all different but patterns are made to fit an average. If you want something that fits you well, you need to adjust the pattern to your own measurements.

A knit for the heat

Liesl in mercerised cotton .