Hawaiian Halter Top

This was a quick and fun one to do.  My friend was having a murder mystery birthday party where we were the participants.  It was a lot of fun, even though none of us really knew what to do or say to each other.  It was sort of scripted, where you got clues and questions to ask each other.  It was to take place at a hotel luau in Maui, Hawaii.

My character was name Poni and I was the star of the luau.  My character was to dress in a grass skirt and a tropical top.

I was not going to wear a coconut bra, that was for certain.  Yea, I've been working out, but I do draw the line somewhere!  Instead I decided to make a chic top from a kitchy hawaiian shirt that I bought at Goodwill.

I bought it oversized, because I did not really know what I was going to do with it.  I did some internet surfing and found a blog that made a halter top out of a button-up blouse.  The blog was called In-Perfection and she gives a step-by-step on how to do it.

I will be brief on it, because it did not really go according to plan and I had to make all sorts of corrections.  But the basics are here.

My shirt had a pocket, so I took that off.

What you want to end up with is keeping the collar and cutting away the sleeves and the top of the back.  So I marked with white chalk, where I was going to cut away the arms.

I cut around the neck/collar and shaped the front.  I cut straight across the back.

That was where I should have taken more care in cutting across the back.  I cut way to low.

I then sewed the raw edges just one fold all the way around.  It was big around the body, so I tucked it in the back and sewed a new seam.  I should have taken in the sides, not the back.

I sewed the lapels down, they were all over!  As you can see, I did not cut even on both sides.  Granted this was for a costume party, so I was not that sad about doing a sloppy job.

Here is me and my $4.99 grass skirt.  The grass skirt did not hide much, so I wore the halter tucked in, which barely covered the booty and wore my black running spandex.

The conclusion: no one noticed my sloppy alterations and we all had a great time.  Even though my character was the annoying miss-goody-goody that told on everyone, I was not the murderer!  Ha ha!

Sleeveless T-Neck - Part 2

As I said before in my previous post about this project, I have been working on this for years.  I hate to admit it, but I'm really not even that interested in this sweater anymore.  It is not all that fashionable and it was sort of a starter garment / practice piece.  

Well, it is FINALLY DONE!  Yippee, raise the flag!

The one on the left is the one I just finished.  Normally you would block these pieces, but given the nature of this yarn, I'm not going to bother.  

The stitches on the tops of both of these pieces are live, meaning that they are loose, ready to go back or stay on a needle, usually to continue the project with a sleeve, neck or edging.  The original pattern called for a turtleneck, but I do not need a turtleneck in my wardrobe.  I am going to vary it but I'm going to be a free spirit and see where it goes.

First, I transferred the stitches to a circular needle because I am going to knit around the neck but not in the round.  I am going to leave an opening / slit on one of the shoulder, so I will be working side-to-side.

I decided to start off by knitting a k3, p2 rib for the neck.  My plan was to knit it long enough so that it will hang down in a sort of cowl neck, but not really.  I am not sure what the proper name of the neck I'm trying to accomplish with my thoughts, we'll just see where this takes me.

I was knitting for awhile and was getting bored with it and wanted it to be finished the day I was working on it.  There is no need for this project to linger on any longer.  Above is my rib fold-down neck.  Not long enough though.

So, I decided, since I am so confident in my crocheting skills since completing my Pima Pullover, that I am going to finish this collar with some crochet.  I bound off with knitting and picked up an I crochet hook and did a dc, ch1, dc thing along the entire edge, then did the same for 4 rows.  

This is how this collar came out!  Not too shabby.  I actually like how this came out.  The shaping of the body of the sweater could be a bit more fitted, but I'm not going to complain too much.

This one shoulder is only connected by a few stitches at the end, but not by the neck.  This is where I intentionally did not connect for the neck.

I can see myself wearing this, maybe at the end of the summer.  The sweater itself it warm, but I have to wear a tank top underneath it so you don't see through it.

I talked about not making myself finish UFOs in my stash in my Craft-no-lutions post at the beginning of the year.  I think because I was sick of moving this project out of the way each time I went into my craft corner, that I decided that it must get done.  Phew, so glad it is over and it came out wearable!

Related Link:

• Sleeveless T-Neck - Part 1

Sleeveless T-Neck - Part 1

Most crafters (knitters, crocheters, cross stitchers, beaders, seamstresses, etc) have projects that are not complete.  This could come in many categories such as: supplies bought but never started, half done, and almost done but something is preventing you from finishing.  This sweater project fits in the "almost done" category.   It has been in this stage, probably, oh, since 2007.  So, what, 5 years?  Yes, it has been sitting in the dark for 5 years! 

Natural roll at the bottom edge

I'm sure I'm not alone, but not sure who will be admitting this over the internet?  I don't care, no problem, let me start!  I am just happy that I am finally getting to it.

Here are my reasons for delaying it:

•  Seemed like a nice project, but something better came along, so I put it aside to work on that.
• I picked it back up in those 5 years, but, again, something better came along, so I put it aside.
• I picked it up last year and realized, about 6" of knitting ago, I made a very noticeable mistake.
• That was when I put it back until I had the courage to do what every knitter hates:

Ripping Out! 

 

Nobody likes ripping out hours of work.  But, I'm in a stash-busting mood, so I'm going to figure this problem out.

Let me introduce you to the project first, though.  It is supposed to be a sleeveless t-neck (cute way of saying turtleneck, I guess).  I got this pattern from the Vogue Knitting International,  Holiday 2004 issue.  I think I may make this a cowl neck instead.  That is more in vogue than a turtleneck (and I'm in Florida, so who the heck wears turtlenecks down here, anyway??)

Boucle yarn

It is being knitted with Bernat Soft Boucle (98% Acrylic/2% Polyester).  It was leftover yarn from a baby blanket I knitted a friend.  The word "boucle" comes from the French for curly.  This yarn is spun so it forms loops at various intervals.  I never knew how to pronounce this word so I looked it up:  boo-clay.   Oui cheri,  Now we can speak French!

The "mistake"

Above is what I have done so far.  I'm working on the second side and that is where the mistake lies.  I have circled it in red.  It a about 15 sts or so of purl on a knit side.  One may not be able to notice it, but I knew it was there and would never had worn it if I finished it like that.  I claim that I was knit-sleeping.

I thought of quick fixes: double stitch a thin ribbon around the body at that row so it would hide it or threading a ribbon through it so it would tie into a cute bow on the side.  Eh, in the end, I figured it would just be best to fix the darn thing.  But I am not ripping it out.  I am going to dropstitch to each wrong stitch and pick them back up.

First: Transfer the good stitches to a stitch holder and placed a stopper at the end of the needle.

 

Second: Undo the stopper and pop one stitch off the needle.  Undo that stitch.  I have the crochet hook there so you can see that it is a live stitch.  I am using the hook to help undo each stitch in each row.

Third: Undo that stitch all the way down to the mistake and one stitch further (for good measure).  The hook is where the bad row of stitches are.  Yea, it's pretty far down.  I call the yarn strands that are left behind a "rung", like rungs on a ladder.

Fourth: To make a good knit stitch, you put the hook through the live loop (the one that you just undid down the length of the sweater) from front to back.  Take the next "rung" that is in the row above it and hook it.  Pull it through the live loop from back to front.  You just made/picked-up one good knit stitch.

Fifth:  Re insert the crochet hook in that new live loop and repeat the fourth step all the way back up the ladder.

Sixth: Once all stitches have been fixed, then transfer all the stitches on the holder back onto the needle.

Finally ready to tackle this sweater!  All the mistake stitches have been fixed.  Not sure if this saved any time, but I feel better that I did not undo all my hours of work.  It took hours to fix the stitches this way, but I can say it is now fixed.