Newport in Kochoron

I loved the Newport jacket so much that I wanted another one in a very different fiber.  You know Kochoron is one of my favorites, so that's what I used.  Yes, Kochoron sheds like a bunny.  Yes, Kochoron often has knots in the skein.  Yes, Kochoron is pricey.  I know all this, but still, when you see the finished project, you just can't help yourself. 

Sweet Charlotte

Finished Charlotte Wednesday night.  I had been really concerned about the fronts as they seemed to be drooping a bit.  So, when I picked up for the front bands, instead of picking up three stitches for every four rows, I picked up two stitches for every three rows, and the fronts hang perfectly.  Also, instead of doing garter stitch for the front and neck bands, I used reverse stockinette.  It matches the lace edging fine, but doesn't stretch.  The collective wisdom Wednesday night was that Charlotte looked better without a closure at the neck (which honestly, at my age, looked just a little too sweet) so I am opting to just wear it open.

Except for the front bands, I worked this pattern pretty much as written.  It was a little unclear to me why the designer opted for double decreases every four rows on the body rather than standard decreases every other row, but I did it anyway.  The result is a decorative little motif along the body portion of the raglan sleeve. 

Here's a lclose up of the double decreases (left slanting on the right side)

and right slanting on the left side.  

As you can see, when you make the decrease lean in the opposite direction of the shaping, it is much more noticeable, and can be very decorative. I'm not sure if I would work the decreases that way again, but it is really attractive The designer uses slip one knit two together, pass slipped stitch over for her left slanting double decrease.  I opted instead for sssk which I think looks a little better.  You can use whatever you like best.

On the sleeve, the pattern instructs you to decrease on the front and the back.  Again, she probably had a good reason for that guidance, but I like to keep things simple, so I did all of my decreasing on the right side.  Here's a photo of my sleeve. 

After it's all said and done, I  really do like this pattern and am thinking of doing another one.

When will it be fall

so that I can wear my Brigitta?  This was so quick and fun to knit up.  I think it took all of a week.  I knit the second size (36) and was afraid that it would be too short, so I followed the length directions for the next size up.  I didn't want the sleeves to hang down onto my hands either.  I followed the directions for the sleeve in my size and then just did the cuff as directed and it was perfect.  You want to be sure to bind those cuffs off really loosely so that you get a nice graceful bell. 

You can see more photos of my Brigitta on the shop blog.

I like this pattern so much that I'm doing another one in Mirasol Ushya - gorgeous shade of sea glass green.  Ooh ooh ooh.  

Charlotte

We went to Pittsburgh to visit Elizabeth this past weekend.  My DH prefers the scenic route which meant a wonderful drive through the Virginia countryside and near perfect leaf-viewing.  It also meant 7 uninterrupted hours of knitting each way.  Life is good.

I had narrowed my knitting options down to either a second Brigitta in Ushya or Charlotte in Sulka. Isn't Charlotte beautiful!

They're both perfect car projects because they're knit in one piece and have fairly simple directions.  I needed something that was engaging but not so demanding that I couldn't enjoy the leaves.

It was tempting to simply knit up another Brigitta because it was fresh in my mind and it goes so darn quick.  On the other hand, I had never knit a big project with Sulka, and it In the end I decided on Charlotte simply because the Sulka took up less room in the car.  What a luscious yarn that Sulka is!  I picked a colorway called red onion, which is, of course, purple.  It's a single ply yarn with lots of loft, so it could be knit anywhere from 3 to 4 stitches per inch.  It's a firm fabric at 4, and a little loose at 3, but on at 3.5 on a size 10 needle, it' s really lovely.

 Charlotte has two repeats of Vine Lace around the bottom and then stockinette the rest of the way up. By the time we got home Sunday I'd finished the entire body and cast on for the sleeves.   Here's it is blocking.