Cruising For A Bruising

The bags are done, the latest shawl & hat for the K4 project are done and we're visiting friends today which calls for a mindless project that I can continue to knit while keeping up with the conversation. Adding the fair isle to the yellow raglan isn't going to fit the bill, so why, oh why, did I think that starting out a tank top where I need to adjust the pattern to fit my yarn & gauge would be such a project?? Ok, I fell in love with the Tivoli t-shirt from Grumperina's site and I have all these skeins of Darlaine Cotton Silky in a pale aqua that have been sitting around forever (a gift from my good friend Pat who couldn't use them in the lap robes she makes for the Veterans' Hospital). The Tivoli pattern calls for a 19 st = 4" gauge and the Cotton Silky, which is sort of chunky, knits up at 12 st = 4". 12 is two thirds of 18, which is close to 19, so I should be able to reduce the pattern by one third and have it come out somewhere close. Suffice it to say my first attempt was a little less than successful.



You'll notice what is missing in this photo - right, the knitting needles! These first 5 rows were on the way to the frog pond because of the way that the stockinette stitch is curling out from the neckline. I was able to try the "tank" on at this point and see that the neckline with 90 stitches around is going to probably fit ok. So back to the needles, cast on 90 stitches again and attempt to rib the first few rows - but the raglan increases are supposed to start after on the third row and I want at least 4 rows of ribbing to hopefully hold the neckline from curling. One stitch for the raglan "seam", increase on either side of it - wait a minute, each of the sections are an odd number - 17, 27, 17, 27 - take one stitch away for the seam and now there's an even number of stitches which means that the ribbing will start with a purl next to the knit "seam" but end with a knit before the next "seam" stitch which will give a different appearance to the beginning and end of each section.. NO!! Back to the frog pond and I'll try casting on 86 stitches, making the sections 16, 26, 16, 26. That won't decrease the size of the neckline by too much, but it should give me matching ribbing by the raglan shaping - all this trouble for 4 measly rows of ribbing. {g} Stay tuned. Me thinks the K4 project is going to get another hat this week as the tank top is turning out to be more complicated than the fair isle for the yellow sweater!