splitting for the neckline of my Lady Bat, and tracking down a lining

Each Wednesday, I take stock of the projects I’m working on, and where my brain is at. 

This week, I focused on knitting away on my Lady Bat sweater, and on the hunt for a lining to line my no-longer-really-an-Anna Maxi Dress.

I just split for the front and back of my Lady Bat sweater.

The Lady Bat pattern is a sideways sweater construction, so you start your sweater working in the round knitting away on one cuff, and through the batwing sleeve. Then you work back and forth for a couple inches – this creates an opening for the bottom of your sweater. After a couple inches you put half of your stitches on a holder, and work flat for the other half – this creates the front (or back) of your sweater. Once the front of your sweater is wide enough, you put your current stitches on a holder, pick up your previously abandoned stitches, and work until both half of your sweater are equal. Then you work a couple inches flat across all of your stitches, before joining your stitches back in the round and knitting your second batwing sleeve & cuff.

So I’m a couple inches into knitting the front of the sweater, and the trickiest thing I’m running in to is balancing a limited quantity of yarn, and knitting a large enough sweater.

In and of itself this balancing act is simply par for the sweater knitting course around these parts – the part I’m finding tricky is taking into account just how much the lace pattern will stretch.

The stitch pattern is an overall zig zag mesh, so I know it has the potential to stretch A LOT with blocking – but exactly how much will it stretch? I’m not quite sure.

Yes I swatched. And I did get quite close to gauge.

However, I didn’t block my swatch to it’s farthest extent. And I also know that (because the pattern is a mesh with many directions of stretch) I have the option of stretching my mesh more lengthwise or width wise – depending on which direction I need more length in.

All of that’s to say – I’m kind of just winging it. There may be some sweater surgery in the future.

With regards to my no-longer-really-an-Anna Maxi Dress, I think found my lining.

Originally I was looking for a lightweight cotton, in a light blue of some sort. I thought the lighter blue (especially if it was bright) would offset the almost navy, but each light blue I tried simply looked out of place. So, I ended up with a shade slightly lighter than navy.

My hope is to get the skirt lining cut & sewn together this week, but looking at my week ahead, I’m not exactly sure when that will be able to happen.

I’m holding out hope that I’ll find a magical gap of time somewhere.