As I stated back in February, this lulu pullover practically knit itself. However, I discovered I needed to be the one holding the needles and yarns. With everything happening earlier this year, I set this pullover aside for several months and when I pulled out the WIP I was disappointed to discover it wasn’t finished. So in about two days of on and off knitting, I finished it.
A quick unblocked fit test and I have a feeling I will get a lot out of this vest come cooler temperatures.
While I successfully did the italian bindoff on the bottoms, neck edge, and one of the button plackets, yesterday I for some reason my brain struggled with it being offset by one (starting with a purl), so for the last three plackets, it was faster to split them on two needles and quickly graft the handful of stitches. Similar end result, different path to get there.
While my wardrobe has shifted away from greens, it makes me happy to give this yarn a new life in a more appropriate fabric than what I’d initially knit it into back in 2011. The alpaca silk held with the single ply fingering makes a very beautiful effect.
I also borrowed a technique I found on social media (ok, two):
- What really helped this semi-unwiedly fabric get finished is I saw somewhere dumping the project in a small bowl and turning it in that instead of wrangling it loose. That kept everything tidier and actually made it easier to work today when it was quite humid and I didn’t want all that wool on my lap. I bought a plastic bowl at Amazing Savings for Pesach. Unfortunately (by design) it doesn’t fit in the storage boxes so it became a year-round knitting bowl.
- For the plackets, I modified a long tail cast-on to be tubular. It’s based on some tutorials you can find on social media/online and I practiced so I can show some students later this week a few different ways to work a 1×1 rib tubular cast on. Again, for the handful of placket stitches it made sense. And this is the real reason I pulled the project out this week and finished it. I need to keep ahead of my students, some of whom plan to knit the summer tee I started. I need to be prepared for their questions!
I wonder how long until I weave in all the ends and find the buttons I had in mind for it.