Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Movie Monday

Every time I post, I read my banner and think: I really do understand Voltaire's last line in Candide (was it really the last line? I'm too lazy to check): Cultivate your own garden.

It doesn't make me happy. To paraphrase the journalist in War, Inc.: It's no fun always being on the losing side.

But I have been cultivating my knitting garden since I last posted Knitting Friday and the crop has been fantastic.

First, my cotton summer top which was started last summer. Did that linger on the needles!

The picture looks like it flares on the bottom but that isn't the case. It's done in a pattern of a 10 stitch x 13 rows square of stockinette followed by the same sized square in seed stitch. Since it was started last summer, it's pre-top-down knitting so perhaps that's why it languished on the needles - I hate the finishing work you have to do on bottom up knitting - even when they are knitted in the round.

Since I finished this top, I've made three others. One which was a bear - splitty yarn and so much finishing at the end. But I wasn't sure I would have enough yarn tor a top-down (I would have) and I've found that top-down knitting (at least the way I do it (CO 80, work a top band, increase to 140 - 160 sts, work straight to about 7", etc. )takes much more yarn than a traditional bottom up garment.

For any doubters, here's the proof:
With a bottom-up top: I CO 120 sts and work my pattern for about 12". Then I bind off 12 sts front and back or the armholes so I'm now working on 96 stitches (split evenly) for about 4" - 7" (depending on style) when I start my 6 stitch bind off at the front and back neck.
With a top-down top: I start with only 80 stitches for the neck band but I quickly almost double that number (140 -160 sts) to work the top to the armhole. So, while the body may be the same in 120 stitches for both styles, the yoke area of my top-down design eats more yarn.

This tank has much more front "droppage" and much thinner shoulder straps than what's pictured above. But it's my coolest and most form fitting tank top (*K4, seed stitch on 3 sts* across.) At 100+ degrees, I looked comfortable; though at 100+ degrees, I doubt any clothes are comfortable.

After I finished this tank, I worked up two more top-down cotton tops. I'll post pictures of all next week. Whoo-hoo!

But I'll leave you will a trick I learned out of desperation:
For one of my top down tops, I used a *K5 then seed stitch on 5 sts* pattern. Now, you know that the reasons I like the Mohair Minimalist type of top-down (CO x sts, work band, double the X sts and work to armhole) over the raglan type top-down is because with the raglan you are very, very limited in your stitch pattern choices unless you want to perform knitting cartwheels.

So, I was quite happy with my pattern though I knew had to watch when I bound off for the armhole since my last armhole in a similar top-down had a bind off 35 sts for the top of the armhole and cast on of 20 for the underarm and it was a disaster - leaving a gaping armhole which needed major work.

I figured this time I would bind off 30 and cast on 15 for a 45 stitch armhole which was 10 stitches fewer. Perhaps a snug armhole, but doable.

It didn't happen; with my pattern I had to bind off and cast on in 5s (25 - 15) or 10s (30 -20), not one in 5s and one in 10s.

OK, so my conundrum was that I couldn't get a 45 stitch armhole, I couldn't use any armhole bigger than that without a gap, and that my only choice of a 40 stitch armhole (BO 30, CO 10) was going to be too tight.

So I googled "stretchy bind off" and the heavens opened up to give me this:

Knit two stitches. *Pass the first stitch over the second - as you would in a typical bind off.
Then, take this remaining stitch on the RN and return it to the LN. Knit it again and the next stitch.*
Repeat across from *.

So while the cast on 10 stitches was still a paltry amount (I used the thumb-cast on for maximum looseness.), the 30 bound-off stitches formed a wavy, attractive, and very loose finish. The armhole worked!

OK, that's enough typing and more than enough reading for you.

Here's Coquille, a shawl pattern from the latest Knitty which I'm pondering:

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEff10/PATTcoquille.php

It has a lot of short rows so it doesn't look like a boring knit.

Happy knitting.