Cotton Concerto Completed

Thanks to Sigrun and her chart, Cotton Concerto is completed.  I might even have an occasion to wear it this weekend, and as I always say - the proof is in the wearing.

Pattern: Women's Raglan Henley.  Pattern # 2564 by Pymouth Yarns

Yarn:      Patons Cotton DK.   Ten balls gifted to me by an elderly friend who said she no longer knits projects that take 10 balls of yarn.  I am am not able to find this yarn on the Patons wesite and suspect it is long discontinued.  Too bad.  It is a nice cotton yarn.

Mods:  This pattern calls for the top to be  knit in the round to the armholes then worked back and forth to the top.  I chose to knit it flat all the way.  Most unlike me, but with the acres of stockinet, I had decided, for a quicker finish,  to hang it on my machine once the shaping was done. There is shaping to decrease from the A-Line bottom to a more fitted look from the waist to the bust.  This pattern had both side and centre-front decreases happening simultaneously.  On a machine, decreases are possible  only at the sides.    By knitting the top by hand and  flat, once those centre front decreases were finished, I was able to hang the piece on the machine and in half an hour had finished it to the neckline.

What I learned:  I learned that charts for lace knitting are a good thing.  A necessary thing.  Often I question their importance saying that to be able to knit the lace pattern I need to translate the synbols into words anyway, so why bother with a chart?  Today, I knit before  you,  a woman of changed opinion.  Without the chart for this lace pattern, I couldn't  pinpoint a 'marker' to tell me where I was.  Did that Yarn Over belong a-top a purl?  A knit?  Heck, I had no idea.  Once I saw Sigrun's chart though, it all became clear. 

The yarn called for in this pattern was Linen.  I used cotton.  The drape in my Concerto is probably more stiff and less drapey than it would have been with  Linen yarn. But not enough to discourage me from using my gifted yarn.  I'm hoping that a day or so on a hanger and a couple of wearings will 'soften' the cotton into a more relaxed drape.

The A line shaping is a new-to-me thing to wear.  Concerto is a test. It is perhaps time, I think, to wear garments with some looseness about my tummy and hips.  But not so loose as to look like maternity wear. I'l let you know after a few wearings what I think.