Grace Irene

My latest pattern is up on Knit Picks!  I know I've already posted about "Grace Irene", but now it's official.

The pattern is available here for $1.99.  This is a very easy pattern and it goes really quickly! I found it hard to put these down while I was working on them.

Photo Shoot

We finally got a warm enough day for a photo shoot. After an early false spring, we got a couple weeks of cold, windy weather.  Anyway, here's a few of the pics we took today...

Princess, wearing "Grace Irene". I am aware that her tank is a bit low in front. I think I'm going to shorten the straps, then take some more pics.

 Here are Princess and Kitty, each wearing "Grace Irene". I wanted a shot that showed both the front and the back at once, so I made tanks for both of them.

 And last but not least, here's Angel, wearing "Theresa Nichole". This tank looks so great on her. 

I still need to decide what other sizes to include in the pattern. I don't want to go much smaller, since the hibiscus motif is so large. If I wrote the pattern for a size 2 or even a 4, the flower would be too big to be clearly seen.  So I'm considering going larger with the pattern, maybe including a 12 and 14.

A peek into my designing process

I'm working on my pattern "Grace Irene". 

It's a cabled tank top for little girls. I actually designed it a couple of years ago, but didn't keep notes, or do more than one size.  So I'm figuring that out now. 

I had to swatch, because I made the original in worsted weight and decided to change the pattern to work with DK weight. I wanted to use Knit Picks CotLin yarn, which is a nice cotton/linen blend DK yarn. So that was the first obstacle. 

Second obstacle: this yarn has no elastic whatsoever, so it doesn't respond like the cotton/acrylic I had used the last time I made one of these. So instead of being form-fitting, it's loose and drapey. Which is fine; I just had to adjust my expectations.  

Next hurdle: figuring out the different sizes. I had to choose a cast-on number that was divisible by 6, because I wanted to use a 4x2 ribbing. Then I had to figure out where exactly I wanted the cable columns for each size. I couldn't just pick at random, because I wanted them to go up the straps and connect in the back by grafting in pattern. If done right, the front and back should be identical.

I didn't do it right. I forgot an important detail regarding which way to cross the cables. They don't match up how I wanted them to. So this one definitely has a front and a back. I'm going to make another one so I can get this problem rectified. Fortunately, my test-knitter hadn't started yet by the time I discovered the issue, so hers will be right.

Even with the mistake, this turned out pretty cute, if I do say so. 

And now I'm also working on my next design "Theresa Nichole"...maybe I'll give y'all a glimpse in another post. I just had to frog and start over on this one, so I'm thinking it's going to give me a few problems too.