Somewhere along the line I apparently decided that I needed some simple tees, warmer weather tees perhaps, although these are mostly transitional weather projects, not suitable for the heat of full summer, at least not in Tennessee, not for me, although I can admit that after living here for over 10 years now, I am getting a little more cold-natured than I was. Not sure that this transition has anything to do with Tennessee, but is probably more the affect of age and the aftermath of cancer/heart issues.
All this to say that the purple/yellow tee I showed you two posts back has been finished.
This all came about rather serendipitously. While I was knitting the lilac Noro tee (two posts back), I was volunteering at the welcome desk at my church, and knitting, when I had a conversation with another knitter. We talked about our love of Noro yarns and she told me about a simple tee pattern she had recently discovered and really loved. The pattern was Olori Sweater Tee by Lanre Ojikutu, which I immediately looked up on Ravelry, purchased and dowloaded even though at that point I had no immediate plans to knit it. After I finished that tee, I had a little over half a skein, or 316 yards, of the light purple Noro yarn left over. I had been eyeing a skein of the same yarn in an acid yellow/green and it occurred to me that the two yarns would work well together. However it took me a couple of weeks to make up my mind and actually buy the second (yellow) skein. But eventually I did, and this sweater was born.
I hadn't knit a top down raglan sweater in quite some years, and I had never knit one that was intended to be even slightly fitted. The pattern is meant to have 1" to 2" of positive ease. Mine is closer to 0 to 1", at the bust, a little looser elsewhere. I didn't make a gauge swatch because I had just knit a stockinette sweater using the same yarn, but I should have. Not surprisingly, my gauge when knitting in the round is slightly tighter than when knitting flat, although the difference is not large. Since I was trying this on as I went, it was not an issue. Actually all that trying on was in order to finagle the raglan shaping just a bit to accommodate my uneven shoulders. I am happy with the result, it is acceptable, but I do think I could have adjusted the stitch counts slightly and have made a note of this for the future. I am not sure these notes translate directly to the next project due to differences in gauge, weight, spin and fiber content and they way all affect the actual knitted fabric, but the process was a useful learning project.
Best of all I am very happy with the result. The only real change I made to the pattern was to add a little extra room at the hips, where I needed it.
I used up the remainder of the purple yarn (316 yards) and 7/10ths of the skein of yellow yarn (370 yards) for a total of 686 yards. My sweater is longer than the original as I am tall, but that is a minor adjustment.
The big surprise was how well this sweater goes with a pair of yellow chinos. This was not planned. I am a firm believer in serendipity, and the idea that what one loves tends to be harmonious. Anyway, I've worn the yellow chinos for years with white, or black, sometimes with soft pinks and greens, but I've never had anything that actually "went" with it. And frankly I didn't think I had anything in my closet that would match this sweater. I just thought the colors were pretty and I could always wear it with jeans, or especially with white jeans or cords, both of which I do own.
Happy serendipity.
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