Hi everybody – I hope you had a great Father’s Day weekend. Happy Father’s day dad – hope it was great! Figures – now I get a great idea fr Mother’s and Father’s day! Oh well, next year. As for everybody else, time to update the reverse engineered top. In case you didn’t see the post, here’s a picture of what it looks like …
As we discussed in the previous post, it’s not a really difficult top to make. The challenges we’re facing are threefold:
- the fabric is a very lightweight linen which is hard to duplicate unless you’re knitting in a fingering weight or finer yarn which will take a very long time unless you have a knitting machine – which I do actually, but that would almost be cheating 😉
- the reviews on the top speak of extremely large armholes which will definitely need to be modified
- there is no clear picture showing the attachment (if any) of the cowl, or how the entire garment is constructed as a matter of fact
- again, from the reviews, it appears that the garment is rather boxy and may need to be shaped – it’s hard to tell from the picture of it on a mannequin
So, to overcome these challenges, I have come up with various solutions. I had a friend (thanks Susan) accompany me to the store to actually try on the garment and see the construction and how it fits. Unfortunately, the shipment hadn’t arrived yet and we couldn’t actually see it. I was told that it will be in Tuesday so I will revisit it and take lots of pictures of it actually on someone – are you free Tuesday Susan?
For the armholes, I have been going over putting on a short sleeve with a ruffled edge. This should complement the cowl nicely and prevent your bra from showing through.
For the fabric, there are a few options. I got a very good suggestion from Therese at Knitfinder – make the top in a DK weight yarn and the cowl in a lace or fingering weight yarn. This is a great idea – hopefully the cowl is separate. Actually, even if it’s not, it can be in our version! I have a great yarn in mind (I know there are lots to choose from doing it this way) – Silke Tweed from Garnstudio/Drops. I will do a swatch of it tonight to see how it will knit up and post my results on Tuesday with pictures of the top (hopefully).
The shaping is actually the biggest issue. Since I am thinking it will need quite a bit of shaping, I will actually be making TWO tops. The first will be for an average sized person (Jennifer who is about 5’7″ – sorry f I’m off Jen) and Lilia who is a little shorter at 5’31/2″ (she’s always fighting for that extra half inch). If you’re amongst the taller women in the population you shouldn’t have any problems lengthening it – I’ll tell you where in the instructions. My concern is how the shaping will turn out on the shorter version.
So all that being said, I am going to do this as a KAL. I will work out a pattern and put it up on here as I go along. That way everybody can knit along with me if they so wish and hopefully we’ll have a fantastic top to wear this summer in about 2 weeks. Hopefully summer will be here by then. I hear it’s summer in California, but here in Vancouver it hard to say. If you want to knit along with me, you should start checking for a DK/Sport weight yarn in a fiber you’ll like for the summer. A cotton or linen would be ideal, but not one too dense. As i know there are a few people out there who are quite nimble with the needles and since I still can’t shake the thought that a sock yarn would be good for this (especially a variegated or self-patterning/striping one), I will also try and work out the pattern for a standard sock yarn gauge – 28sts to 4″. If you have a sock yarn with cotton as the main fiber I think that would be ideal.
Okay, I’m going to start my swatches and I’ll report back on Tuesday!
Hugzzz 😎