halterrific

Blocked and ready to rock and roll, just in time for a big day of romping with friends, is a new halter top, designed and knit by Leah. She picked an easy yarnover holey pattern from a stitch dictionary and knit a swatch using cotton yarn (reclaimed from a Goodwill sweater, leftover from her Josephine top) along with a big cone of blue cotton yarn, possibly from the yarn tag sale bonanza or maybe one of the freebie cones from the Webs tent sale last spring.

She used a loose-fitting tank top for measurements and calculated how many stitches to cast on for the body rectangle, w/ some garter stitch rows/stitches around the perimeter. Continued until the skirt was long enough, finishing that portion at Worldwide Knit In Public Day. Bound off 5" of the right and left of the top of the skirt after a few garter rows, then started one of the top triangles in stockinette, having it continue ~2" past mid point for overlap of the triangles. At first, she decreased on every other knit row, w/ a ssk on the right and a k2tog on the left edge of the triangle, just inside a 3-stitch seed stitch border all around. After doing that for 3-4 sets of decreases, she continued decreasing in the same way on every knit row until she was down to 7-8 stitches. Repeat for other top triangle, picking up 2" of stitches behind the first triangle so they overlap in the center.

We then used 3-4 thicknesses of the yarn combo to make twisted cords, first threading the yarn through the stitches through the top of one triangle, then twisting the yarn a lot before doubling it over and letting it twist on itself. Makes a nice effect at the top of the triangles and distributes the weight of the top among those 7-8 stitches, rather than just in one or two spots if the cord had been sewn on afterward. Same sort of deal with the cord to tie it in back, at the top of the skirt.

While this was blocking, she started a b'day gift that will be ready for a friend's party this weekend. She's been working on it like crazy and has already tossed the stash and browsed Ravelry to decide which project will be on the needles next, but today she's thrilled to be wearing her own finished handiwork.