Well, I apologize for taking so long on this Knit-A-Long, but it’s been a crazy spring. With a little luck, we should get it finished this week. The last post for this KAL showed you how to do short rows. Hopefully it wasn’t too late. So by now, you should be an expert in short rows, and have finished both parts of the back lattice. So let’s jump back just a little. after you did the first side of the back, you continued to do the shoulder and the strap that wraps around the front and onto the bra cups. There is a split in them to allow for the strap to attach to either side of the cups, giving more support. I found the instructions for this very straightforward and easy to follow. If you had any trouble, fire me off a quick note and I’ll do what I can to assist you.
Once you’ve done the first part of the back, you need to go back and repeat the same thing for the second side. There are two tricky parts of this process though. The first is that you have to reverse all your shapings. So if you were starting your short rows on the right side before, you’ll be starting them on the reverse side this time. Also, when you finish the straps on the second side, you have to cross them in a lattice before continuing. Once the lattice is formed, you can continue with the knitting as the two sides will be interwoven. This is what gives the pattern such a stunning look as everyone will wonder how you managed to knit the lattice. Its our secret, so don’t tell anyone. Here’s a picture of what it will look like after you’ve woven the lattice.
At this point you place all the straps on your needles and continue with your short row shaping to incorporate all three straps until you have a triangle shaped wedge joining all of them together. Then you continue in the pattern, doing your decreases to form the shoulder strap as you did on the other side. Here is a picture of what that will look like once you’ve finished that part.
The orange yarn in the picture is my version of stitch holders. I am doing a little experimenting with the straps to find the best way of finishing them. The pattern tells you to cast off to give you the slope you had with the bra cups, but I think some more short rows would work well here. I’ll let you know what I decide in the next post.
Hugzzz 😎