Sweet Tea Take Two (and three and four and...)

After letting the Sweet Tea sit to one side for a few days I frogged it and took a picture of the yarn so I would have something to show on my Ravelry project page.

I tried making the top front again using a smaller hook but was still having the same problem of it being too wide. I took a good look at it and realized that the edges were flaring out really bad. I made some measurements and discovered that even though I had gauge when I started, my shell stitches were 0.25 inches wider in the last row of the top front as they were in the first row. So, I was not getting the shape I needed for the piece and I wasn't keeping gauge.

I frogged the piece again and set it aside so I could think of a way to fix my problem.

While thinking about how to fix my gauge issue, I decided that I wanted to make the tank one size smaller and add some short rows (instructions for this are in the pattern, so I didn't have to work the detail of that out, thank goodness!:)).

I came up with some things to try to fix my problem and tried them a couple days later. First, I tried doing the increases on the edges in a smaller hook to see if that would pull them in. It did not help as much as I had hoped. Frogging number three. Second, I left out the increases on some of the rows to prevent the edges from flaring out. The shell stitches were still widening some, but that compensated for the width being lost from the removed increases. So I finally had something that was the right length and the right width. The removal of some stitch repeats did mean however, that I was going to have to follow the instructions for a smaller size than the one I was actually making.

It was at this point that I realized that I needed to make the top two sizes smaller to fit my torso properly. Frogging number four. This also meant that I would need to put in the maximum number of short rows to make room for my chest (there are two short row options in the pattern).

Finally I was able to make two top pieces for the front and back that were close enough to the right size to be used. When I made the connecting row to put the two pieces together and start working on the body of the garment, I discovered that the shells were still spreading some and the called for number of stitches for the underarm area made it too big around again. AHHHH!

I frogged back the connecting row, reduced the number of underarm stitches to get the width I needed and then switched to a smaller hook in order to keep the shells the same size as before.

Once I was working evenly and no longer needed any increases, I was able to keep gauge quite well. I started making the body of the sweater, adding in all of the short rows I could. I tried it on as I was going along and...IT FIT! Happy dance!

I am now working even on the body of the tank until it is long enough. But, it is finally working! I am checking my gauge every few rows just to be sure, though!

The straps may still pose a challenge, but I will cross that bridge when I come to it. At least I am a little better prepared now.

You learn something new every day

I discovered this morning that The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service is not necessarily the best thing to read on public transit on the way to work. ;)

This is my reward for being fearless?

I have been planing to make the Sweet Tea tank from Everyday Crochet by Doris Chan for a long time. I bought the yarn about a year ago, after receiving the book for Christmas. I felt it would make a good first adult sized garment project as it has no seaming and no sleeves. But, as I had never tried to make anything that required a lot of shaping and a strict adherence to gauge, I was hesitant to start in on it.

In the interest of being a more fearless crocheter, I made a New Year's resolution to actually make this garment. So, yesterday afternoon I decided that I would start it. No time like the present, right?

The basic idea for this tank is you start at the top and make the top of the front of the garment and then the top of the back. Next, you join them together with bits in between for the underarms and then work the rest of the body in the round. After that is done you make the straps and voila! tank top.

I knew that getting gauge would be very important, so I swatched and swatched and swatched again until I was satisfied that I had in fact found the right hook to get gauge with the yarn I have. So far so good. Next, I started with the top front (or back they are both the same). I got the base rows down and started working the pattern rows. I was happily working repeats of pattern rows 1 and 2 to start with, then I got to the part where I needed to work repeats of pattern rows 3 and 4. This is when I realized I had a problem. I was thinking that pattern rows 1 and 2 were work even rows and pattern rows 3 and 4 were increase rows and in fact it was the other way around. I had not read the instructions carefully enough before starting.

I was kicking myself as I ripped back to the base rows because I follow protocols for a living and I should have freaking known better!

Fine. I redid the piece doing the increase and work even rows in the right places. I made a second identical piece for the back of the tank top. I proceeded to do the first round where the two pieces are joined together and the underarms are made.

Everything was going well and I imagined myself flying through this thing and having a lovely piece to wear from my first foray into adult sweaters.

Somewhere in the middle of the second round it occurred to me that the tank was looking a bit big, so I put it on and hold it up about where it will sit once the straps are on. It was not just a bit big, it was HUGE. *^%#!

I laid the piece out on the bed so I could recheck my gauge. The gauge in your swatch isn't always what you get when you actually go to make an item. I figured with the increases and what-not maybe it was coming out different enough to cause me problems. I was just fine with this theory, not happy but fine. That is until I discovered that, to the best of my ability to determine such things, my gauge was SPOT ON. AHHHHHHH!

I checked to see just how far off I was, because I would need to know in order to try and fix things and the thing was 10 inches too big. 10 inches! How on Earth could I have been 10 inches off if I had gauge? The only thing that prevented me from swearing like a sailor at this point was the fact that I do not actually know how sailors swear. (Maybe the people at the pirate shop can advise me on that.)

This really only left me with two, equally demoralizing, explanations. One, my understanding of what was meant by the gauge guidelines was so far off as to have put me in the next state or two, there is a serious warp in the space-time continuum in my apartment that I was previously unaware of.

I am using a different yarn than the one in the book. However, it is the same weight yarn and has at least some fiber content in common. Even if the fiber content were completely different I still don't see how that could be responsible for the item being 25% larger than expected with gauge having been achieved.

The project is now sitting off to one side waiting for me to calm down enough to rip it out and figure out where in the heck I went wrong.

Sometimes life gets in the way...

..of blogging. Sorry, for taking so long to report back on Stitches West. But, I developed a raging headache on the way home and proceeded to spend the next 3 days in bed felled by some bug or other. Yeah. Not fun.

So, a quick recap. My friend and I went to the yarn market on the Saturday. There was more lovely yarn than you could shake a stick at. It was truly a bit overwhelming. Jess and Casey from Ravelry were not there this year, unlike last year, which I rather missed. I did see Jennifer Hansen of Stitch Diva Studios doing a tunisian crochet demonstration, which was very cool.

My friend and I were both on tight budgets this year. She had a short, very specific list of things she was after. Most of which she found. I didn't have anything in particular I was after (except an ergonomic 3mm hook), but set myself a very strict spending limit. I did find the hook I was after and bought a copy of Amazing Crochet Lace by Doris Chan. I got her book Everyday Crochet for Christmas in 2007 and love it. Amazing Crochet Lace is full of equally wonderful patterns. Maybe I will do a review once I have had more time to look at it.

I figured I was done with shopping after that and would have gone home completely happy, except as we were taking one last look at things on our way out I saw this skein of hand painted sock yarn that just called to me. I literally picked it up and put it down three times, until I finally had to be honest with myself that I was in yarn lust. At which point I forked over the money and took the lovely little thing home(not that my friend was an enabler of that or anything ;)). It still hasn't told me what it wants to be, but I am sure that will come in time.

That is all I have to report. Have a great weekend!