Friday, February 01, 2008

Karabella Aurorita

Here's my Bella, made with Karabella Aurora 8.



I followed the pattern as is, for the most part, except for the sleeves. I did my sleeves in the round, starting from the top. I picked up 60 stitches around armhole (I made size S), starting 9 stitches before the shoulder seam, knitted the sleeve cap with short rows, and then continued in the round. I also made my sleeves a little longer than the pattern -- just kept knitting until the ball of yarn ran out.

Also, I did the lace steeks at the back corners, rather than at the shoulder seams. It seemed a more natural place for them.

And now that Bella is done, I've started on Giselle. I think I've done about 30 rows so far.

8 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Lovely!! Can you give more hints about how to do the sleeve caps in the round, or tell where to get the info??? Thanks- Elizabeth

mary_me_a_little said...

It's absolutely gorgeous! And I love the color:) It sounds like you did the sleeves pretty much the same way that I did: As described in EZimmerman's book "Knitting Without Tears"--(and wow--what a great book!)

Great knitting!

Robin said...

Turned out great! Nice work!

Susan said...

Great job! It looks fabulous on you.

Marnie said...

It looks absolutely gorgeous. I'd love to see a closeup of your steek!

Soozletew said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
boogaloo said...

Thank you all for your comments!

Elizabeth, here's how I did the sleeves: First look at the sleeve graph for your size and count how many stitches it is at the widest point (I made the small size, so this number for me was 60), this is how many stitches you need to pick up around the armhole. Next, count how many stitches are in the very top row and divide by 2 (for me, this was 18/2 = 9). So, I picked up 60 sts, starting at 9 sts before the shoulder seam. Because this is a small circumference, you'll have to work it either with magic loop technique or on two circs.

I never did any stitch wrappings, it worked just fine without it. To do the increases for Row x, I worked one side of the increase at the end of the previous row than the increase was meant for (Row x-1), and the other half on the actual row (Row x). To illustrate what I mean:
Row 1: I knit 18 sts + 1 st for Row 2 increase, turn
Row 2: Slip 1 st, purl 18 sts + 1 st for Row 2 increase + 1 st for Row 3 increase, turn
Row 3: Slip 1 st, knit 20 sts + 1 st for Row 3 increase + 1 st for Row 4 increase, turn
etc.

There was one row that required increasing 2 sts on each side, so you just work 2 extra sts at the end of the Row x-1 and 2 extra sts at the end of the current Row x.

Also, some rows didn't have any increases, so at the end of Row x-1 only add stitches for the Row x-1 increase, and at the end of Row x only add stitches for the Row x+1 increase.

When you get to the row where you increase all the rest of the stitches, just start knitting in the round and place a marker at the armhole "seam". This is where you will be decreasing stitches to taper the sleeve.

There, did that make any sense?

Anonymous said...

Wow. I have absolutely no idea if I understood your instructions, but I am very impressed with the detail! I'm not there yet, but I will probably use your tips. Thanks.