Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Alright, Arethusa

Here's one that was a mighty monkey on me back.
Photobucket
Pattern: Arethusa
Yarn: a few balls of Patons Classic Wool, in a pretty heathered pink
(I think it was about 3 balls)

I saw someone wearing a sweater that had purty garter ribbing around the yoke. My attempts to replicate that didn't really live up to my expectations, but Arethusa is a wearable knit nonetheless.

Generally I shy away from the pink yarns, but this one floated my boat. The heathering of the pink made it more palatable for me. I wanted a lighter-shaded yarn to show off the garter rib details, and was impatient as this was the only good option - colour-wise - sitting on the shelves of Michaels at the time of my impulsive and impromptu yarn purchase.

I started out keeping notes on it, and I have decent ones for the entire body. But the neckline had to be re-done, and I never ever liked having to redo things. Thus, you have a unique knit, which was once a monkey-upon-back, but has morphed into a garment that I'll give a 8.5/10 on the wearability and happiness scale.

I could (and would, if knit again) improve on the neckline.
Unfortunately, it pulls a bit right at the bustline, which you can sort of see in the photo. I would also improve on the sleeve-ribbing, and use a needle that's a step down in size so as to avoid the slight puffy-outiness that the sleeve currently sports.
(In an odd piece of trivia, Firefox underlines "purty" as a spelling error, but takes no issue with "puffy-outiness". And here I was thinking I'd coined a ridiculous term!)

8 comments:

Meghan said...

ooh, this is great. It looks the the yoke is lower in front. I'd love to get an idea of how you did this--I've been toying with the idea of how to make a U-shaped yoke in front.

Susan said...

I love how he yoke looks in the garter stitch. That's a great color, too.

Ellen said...

Another very cute knit, the garter stitch looks really nice.
(By the way, I totally giggled at the triva!)

ShirleygoesMontessori said...

That's adorable. If you ever write it up and want a test-knitter, count me in.

soknitpicky said...

It's fabulous! You are a constant fount of creativity :-)

Team Knit said...

I really like how the garter yoke is more of a bib design, really pretty. I love pink, but only in dusty, heathered tones- otherwise I feel a bit like barbie! Looks great.

- Julie

LittleCanoe said...

I looooove the yoke. It's so unique. I'm not a big fan of pink, either, but sometimes consider branching out. I think this is a beautiful project.

Nadia said...

Looking so lovely!