American Thread Company 3811: Sleeveless Slipon

Listening: Cajun mix (Balfa Toujours, Michael Doucet, and Linzay Young and Joel Savoy)

I finished Jeannie's shawl yesterday. It only took me, like, two freakin' years. (Jeannie is my 16" American Girl Hopscotch Hill "Gwen" doll, who serves as a mini-me mannequin of sorts.)

I'm not kidding. This picture of it 1/3 complete was posted in October 2009. *Facepalm*.

It's oversized for her but I like big shawls. The shawl I made for myself is huge. The doll shawl took an entire ball of sock yarn; I literally had about three inches left. It's a really nice scale and texture but I'm not itching to handle sock yarn and US1 needles again too soon.

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I've decided that need both new sweaters, and I need--'cause it's not like I haven't said it before--to branch out from the knitted rectangle. I'm a notoriously addle-pated knitter, though, so the directions have to be very clear and very simple. I can't get good, basic, wool sweaters here in Texas. I can get cotton sweaters, which I hate because cotton yarn has no "give" and always feels clammy to me, and I can get super-lightweight, ornamental sweaters, but no good, honest, no-frills, woolies.

As they say: If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.

I'm going to attempt American Thread Company 3811: Girl's Sleeveless Slipon (from American Thread Company No. 38: Basic Sweaters, 1945):

The sizes only run 12, 14, and 16 (Bust 30, 32, 34 in 1945. Times have changed, hunh?). I'm about a 16 in dress sizes but I'm going to try to run this up one more size to give myself a little more wiggle room, since some of the dresses over which I mean to wear it are kind of blousy. It seems like a very straightforward pattern, though; I can read through the instructions and picture--I think--what everything means, which is a good sign.

I've not only never resized a pattern for knitted clothing before, I've never even knitted a pattern for knitted clothing before. Yeah, flying blind here. I typed up the instructions with my proposed alterations and emailed them to Amber Jean, who knows what she's doing, for input. If she gives it the thumbs-up, I'll post them as images of some sort.

It's going to be dark brown. Yay.

Oh, and it's worked on worsted-weight yarn on--*gulp*--US1 and US3 needles. Yes, that's right. I did a swatch and the gauge came out just like the pattern said it should. It's tight, but, really, tight is good since I actually need it to stay warm in my office. I like tight knits; I've never gotten on the giant-needle, knit-an-afghan-in-one-episode-of-reality-TV bandwagon. Thankfully, stitch tightness has never been an issue for me. I'm very tactile and it's easy for me to keep the yarn and stitches the same tension all the time.

I'm kind of looking forward to this, really. If I can get it to work, it will be a great confidence-booster.