Sunday 20 May 2007

Cloud coverage

It has been noticed among my lovely band of commentators that I have been reluctant to post the cloud bolero. I actually finished it weeks ago, in the car on the way to ATP (being away from my stash explains the missing last picot, oh eagle eyed viewers). Straight off the needles, the bolero was not promising: the lace section at the back flared out with a disconcerting suggestion of wings. However, inspired by Caroline M's taming of the sea slug, I set to with water, towels and pins to see what could be done.

The result is a bolero which flairs less but is still too big. There is a fix: I could put in steeks either side of the underarm cast-on stitches, and take out the fabric there. I won't be doing that straight away, though. I've given myself enough trouble with this knit without rashly wielding the scissors. Between the yarn, and my shrinking bust size (it turned out it was me and not the bolero, although personally I hold the baby responsible), I turned a cute little knit into a not-so-fun business.

On the Yarn Forward website, they recommend using a worsted weight yarn to get "a nice drapey fabric". Having knit the pattern, I suspect that this means a nice drapey fabric in comparison to the firmer, more-likely-to-flair fabric that I've achieved using chunky yarn. Personally, I think the chunky yarn makes a more interesting finished garment: to me YF's sample looks twee, whereas Ysolda's looks engagingly winsome (I may be the only person living for whom that distinction holds any weight, though). The only other thing worth saying about the pattern is that it doesn't tell you what the markers are for, and that might be confusing if you're not used to working top-down raglans or lace patterns. If you know in advance that marker A is for your raglan "seams" and marker B is for the beginning of the lace pattern, it will all go very smoothly indeed (by the time I finished the version I'm wearing, I knew this by heart).

Oh and I look a bit peaky in the photo because I was up late last night casting on for Arisaig. Sarah, I'm knitting at your heels!

Pattern Cloud Bolero, from Yarn Forward, size m
Materials Rowan Soft Chunky (4 balls); Clover 6mm bamboo circular
Cost £11.50 on ebay (actually it was a lot of 8 balls, but since I'd rather knit with my own hair than with this stuff again, it would be rather dishonest to halve the cost)

7 comments:

Sarah said...

Oh it looks really lovely, it's so interesting how the pain of the process affects how we feel about the end garment so strongly though - you'd think you could leave that behind once it was off the needles.

I'm with you on preferring it in chunky yarns. I've got some Noro Iro that I'm planning for this. We 're both obviosuly Ysolda fans :o)

Seahorse said...

I like that a lot. I hadn't 'seen' it in the original but yours has a great vintage vibe.

florencemary said...

I think the bolero looks absolutely fantastic, Webbo - really! I don't think it looks too flarey or too big... You are worrying unduly!

Linda said...

Well it is very nice even if it is too big! Steeks sound a bit drastic!

Donna said...

I think it looks lovely, it really suits you. I really like what you have on underneath too.

regiknits said...

It's so pretty. If you hadn't said that it was meant to be more fitted I wouldn't have known.

MsFortuknit said...

Thats quite wonderful as well!