If knits were like pies...

Have you all seen the movie Waitress? It's an awesome movie out in theatres right now, about a small-town waitress named Jenna who is a genius at creating delicious pies, and names them after her life dilemmas, such as "Kick in the Pants Pie" and "I Don't Want Earl's Baby Pie."

Well, if knits were like Jenna's pies, this would be the "I'm Single Again and I Got This Luscious Yarn to Make Me Feel Better Sweater." And it doesn't hurt that it's a sexy little knit, either.



Sahara

Yarn: Tilli Tomas Pure and Simple (2 skeins) and Disco Lights (1 skein) in Hibiscus
Needles: Sizes 4 and 6

Notes:

Wow, am I glad I splurged for this yarn. It really is the most luscious yarn I've ever worked with. I knit the XS size after reading in the pattern notes about the tendency of the yarn to stretch. I think it'll be fine, except that I may need to tack the neckline together a bit more because I think it's already starting to stretch out a little and if I'd turned a little sideways you'd all get a nice glimpse of my bra.

A word about binding off: I learned that just because the pattern says to bind off loosely, it doesn't mean that you can just take really loose stitches with the needles you're using. I bound off the neckline with the size 4 needles I was working with and the neckline was so tight that it hiked the bottom of the lace panel all the way to my cleavage. I undid the cast off and because I was working with Disco Lights, I stripped the yarn free of all the sequins, because let me tell you what, it is a nightmare to pull out the stitches if you have to frog. I then cast off with size 6 needles, and it was better, but I undid it again and tried Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn bind off, which is a super stretchy bind off (here's a nice tutorial from Knitty). Ta da! Like magic. I went back and redid the hem with this bind off, as well.

I also don't know if any of you had trouble with the short rows on the sleeves, but because I am a relatively new short row novice, I was wrapping the stitches without picking them up and knitting them. That little piece of information is at the beginning of that section, but of course I missed it, and a little voice inside my head kept saying, this isn't right, this doesn't seem right. Sure enough, at 2:30 in the morning when I had finished the first sleeve, I focused my bleary eyes on the pattern again and realized that it does say to pick up the stitches. It just doesn't say that in instructions where you might expect it to spell that out for you. Doh.

Anyway, it's been a treat to see everyone's finished Saharas! And even though the KAL is over, everyone's finished Rusted Roots make me want to try this pattern too!

See you all in the next round!