Liquorish Allsorts is done!

Yesterday I reknit from the last orange strip upward. I started the neck shaping furthur into the front panel and gradually decreased the collar edge so the neckline wouldn’t be so square. When I’d decreased the sleeve stitches between the raglan ‘seam’ out of existance I continued with the decreases on the outside of the seam. This meant the shoulder was still growing toward the neck, but sloping half the rate. Then I continued the decreasing into the rolled hem, to stop it wanting to curl outwards.

All that sound too technical? Basically, I shaped it so the side of the neckline sits closer to the neck, and slopes gradually up rather than doing an abrupt 90° turn.

The new neckline. Looks like a normal neckline. Which is what we want.

I tried it on over a jumper (to get a man size look) and it’s much better. Last night I sewed down the inside of the hem, finished weaving in ends. This morning I gave it a quick dunk in woolmix (note: the water ended up quite black, so the dye in this wool isn’t 100% fast), spun out some of the water and blocked it on a towel on the bathroom floor.

And now for my Project Spectrum fo for the month: a crochet headband.

I have to admit, I knitted this in the last few days of May, not June. I kept forgetting to photograph it for the blog. There’s a mistake in it, but went to some trouble to take photos in which it isn’t visible so I’m not about to point it out!

I have half a dozen of these, some triangular, some rectangular. I wear them while my hair is drying, which trains my hair not to hang over my face. I’ve noticed a few ‘ear warmer’ patterns appearing in magazines lately that are effectively the same sort of thing. In fact, I’ve bought magazines simply because they had a nice ‘ear warmer’ pattern. Ear warmers are definitely on the agenda.

What next? Well, last night I started the Squares Jacket. I knit a tension square and found I was a stitch out. I then cast on and started knitting the hem of the back and sides in one, in a needle size smaller… and found I was a stitch out. This always happens. I’m a slightly loose knitter and going down a needle size or two doesn’t make a lot of difference. Instead I simply knit the size smaller. Or, with garments like these that aren’t slim-fitting, just start and when I have done twenty or so rows put the stitches onto a thread, measure, then decide if the extra cm are worth worrying about.