Is/has anyone else knitting/knitted/fitted a lace garment?
Hi all,
I posted this in the lace knitter’s forum, but haven’t gotten any responses… :( so, apologies if you’ve already seen it.
Maybe someone here can give me a little direction…
Hi anyone,
Soooo many people are making lace shawls, scarves, wraps, etc. and they are all quite gorgeous & I lust after them, but I’m just not a “shawl person”! at least not yet…grin…I think it’ll take making one for myself…So I’m knitting a lace vest Rose Lace Vest from A Gathering of Lace.
The first size of the given instructions would drown me, so I’m flying by the seat of my pants & trying to make it to fit me. It’s written for L (45), to XL, to XXL.
So, basically, the pattern starts at the back shoulder, you knit down to the armholes, put those stitches on hold, then pick up stitches on either side of the shoulders & knit down the fronts, then join & knit the rest.
I’ve struggled through & achieved most of the front increases in pattern (3 left to go) for the V-neck cardigan-type shaping, changed considerably from the written instructions, which if I’d followed would have put the center front joining somewhere around my waist, I think. (The given length of the vest is 27”, and I want mine to be about 22”.)
So, I held off doing the back increases for the underarm shaping & actually didn’t do as much of the back as I probably needed to do to get to the underarm increases, because I wanted to be able to “fit” as I went along. Now, it’s coming down to decision time, and I’m not sure just what to do. At present, I’m knitting the fronts & back at the same time, and I’m not sure how much I should be stretching it to decide whether it’s long enough to start the underarm increases front & back.
How does one decide just how long a piece of lace knitting for a garment is??? When you’re measuring a piece that says it oughta be 8 or 9 inches long (the back length), do you measure it just patted flat or blocked to within an inch of its life??? Likely, somewhere in between, right? I’m just really trying to avoid abusing this cashmere single any more than I already am/have…I’ll put in a lifeline on the purl row before starting the underarm increases, but any lace-garment-maker’s wisdom would be much appreciated.
TIA,
Diane
3 responses so far
Well….
How much you block depends on how you intend to block it when it’s finished.
I likely wouldn’t block a garment “to within an inch of its life” the way I do a shawl… partly b/c I’d be blocking it more often (what with garments getting bathed more frequently than shawls) and I’d run out of motivation to do that after about round 2 or 3.
But, you should block it to the extent you plan to do in the future (I might go a hair less for measuring. A touch more underarm ease will be less trouble than not quite enough).
Thanks ShadowDancer!
That makes sense…
It’s kind of what I was thinking/expecting. Guess I gotta stop knitting & do some blocking, blech! This has definitely morfed into a thinking person’s project…but if it turns out as I’m hoping (to fit ME!!), I will be so pleased! I had no idea how much WORK this would be and how much concentration it would require…guess that’s why so many more people work on flat pieces like shawls & scarves…this is pretty challenging…
Thanks again,
Diane
Just stretch it the amount you plan on blocking it. If you plan on doing an aggressive block then stretch it agressively. You want to go with the way you’re going to finish. Remember though you may get some gravity stretch even after blocking. Hope this helps.
Carla