Lacey Tee

Finally, my month-long knit is finished.  A tiny, lacey tee - one month to knit!!! 

But it is finished and had its first trial run yesterday. 

Details:  

Pattern: Scoop Neck Pullover from the Summer 2014 issue of Vogue.

Yarn:  Mission Falls Cotton for the stockinet portions and a crochet cotton called Helena for the lace portions.  Mission Falls has been discontinued for quite some time but a year ago I picked up 5 balls at $1. per ball at Spinrite in  Listowel.  The Helena I picked up a few years ago for $1 per ball from a sale bin at London Yarns.

Needles:  4mm. I started with 5mm as per the ball band on Mission Falls but the lace portions - already more stretchy than the stockinet portions were almost out of control  I tried a 4.5mm but finally settled on a 4mm.

Mods:  Many.  

     The yarn called for in the pattern was fine and required the stockinet portions to be knit with yarn doubled.  MF is thicker than the suggested yarn so I knit with one stand throughout.

     I didn't knit the sleeves. Why?? A yarn shortage and more summery look.

     The neck trim - I did my own thing.  A few rows of ribbing and then two rows of stockinet before cast off.

      Two rows of stockinet inserted in the centre of the lace portion to prevent lace looseness.

Comments.  

*I did not like the pattern at all.  It was vague and confusing.  For example, you can see that the tee has a shirt tail hem - longer in the centre front/back than at the sides. This is done by working a series of short rows soon after the cast on.  At one point  the  pattern  said to knit for xx inches from cast on.  Would that be xx inches from the cast on as it presents itself at the sides or at the centre? There is about two inches difference.  No help from Vogue on that point.  Figure it out.

*The shoulder shaping was done by casting off rather than short rowing.   I should have known better.  Even though this casting off was accomplished in a new-to-me method of shaped casting off, it did  not, IMO,  produce the nicest shoulder..

*The bottom edge curls - despite being knit in garter stitch.

*The worse problem for me though was the contrast in loosy-goosy-nees between the  stockinet and lace.  Without the two rows of stockinet, centre-lace, the lace flared so much as to appear gathered when reined in by the   stockinet portions  above and below. 

*I am also not pleased with the 'wings' at the side bottoms,  I see a renovation happening there.

The knitting of this pattern reminded me once again that I do my best knitting when I use the pattern as inspiration only.  The design details  should come from my own brain.