The Little Camisole That Could

That's the sun setting on my two inches of progress towards a handpainted silk version of the lace camisole pattern I keep promising to debug and post, after two bright glorious days of Connecticut doing the season Connecticut does best. I got a slow start on Thursday night figuring out a gage, deciphering the old pattern, getting really excited about the lace cast-on's on Eunny's site, messing up the lace cast-on while watching the end of Hustle & Flow, crawling into bed, knitting some more, falling asleep, waking up, knitting some more...

I took a break Friday, then took the knitting along on a Saturday morning tag sale adventure. Had I brought my digital camera instead of my wannabe silk camisole, I could share some of the mind-blowing weirdness that my friend and I found on sale in rural Connecticut. Who knew so many people own unicycles? We gave in to a high-pressure sale for some old pie tins. We scored some cool antique costume jewelry from a local flea market. We ate cider donuts and homemade ice cream, and got faint sunburns while sitting for a while in an old cemetery. I knit through about half of my first ball of the super-expensive silk handpaint, and realized that there was no way I was going to be able to knit even half a tube top with the amount of this yarn I'd bought/could afford to buy.

When I got home, I dug out the original lace camisole and a new-nearly matching ball of black cotton and started fiddling around with some edging patterns, free from the internet. The pattern I settled on--the Lattice Edging--was simple enough for me to only mortally screw up one section (can you see the major yo shift that happens about 6 rows from the end?). The length is not quite where I want it, either. To solve the Britney Spears midriff problem, I need at least another half inch of length or more. I'm thinking about trying a new pattern, maybe one that continues the leaf motif, or maybe I'll just add another 4-stitch cable near the top of the edging, to, like the cables that run vertically along the sides and the center.

Meantime, I've been rethinking the front of the camisole. There's too much contrast between the plain, ribbed top part and the open lace below... Have to think of how to work that in a way that blends the lace and solid portions a little better. Lucky thing that I bought three balls of tan Takhi cotton in case I wanted to redo the entire camisole in something a little cheaper than that silk handpaint.