FO: Dalloway Blouse

I was very remiss in posting to the blog when I posted this YouTube review. Whoops! I posted this video already, so if you'd prefer I tell you about this project that way, you can check it out below :)

This was started as a quick project. After finishing my Rose Street Cardigan, I was trying to decide what the next project would be. I like to always have a sweater on the needles, so I was thinking of picking up my Audrey in Unst or another traditional "sweater" when I saw the Dalloway in my queue.

This is the Dalloway by Sydney Cabaugh of Squid's School of Vintage Knitting. It's a 1920s-30s "Jiffy" pattern that is designed to work up quickly. Her original sample was done in wool, but she specifically mentions that you can use plant fibers for summer and give things you should consider for that. I bought this Silk City Fibers Bambu 7 yarn last summer wanting to try knitting a rayon top, so when this pattern was released I ear-marked this yarn to make it up. This is the persimmon colorway.

The shape of this sweater is very simple - it's basically a true T shirt. The pattern has you cast on for your bust and then knit straight until the underarm, but I didn't want to add a waist tie and I like a more defined waist, so I added some decreases (which I regret now, but I'll show that later). The whole shirt is knit in a drop stitch, so it's very easy to memorize... less easy to fix when you inevitably drop stitches because you used the slickest yarn ever. So there were holes in the lower part of the body, which is unfortunate. I thought, "oh, I'll just go back and fix it when I weave in the ends," but because this stitch is open all over, you can see my hole repairs and there is really not much you can do about that. Oh well.

The other issue was with my changes on the waist decreases. It was very difficult to see if my gauge was accurate when I made the swatch simply because this yarn is so heavy AND this stitch so open AND this is a plant fiber, which grows over time so I knew it was going to to be different as a shirt than as a swatch. My shirt came out longer than I planned, I added too much for the hips, and now it sags at the sides. Oh well.

The neckline was an interesting challenge. I bound off once, thinking I was pulling very large bind off stitches, only to have it not go over my head when I was done. I had to pull out the entire bind off and it took 1 and a half more tries to get the bind off stitches big enough. This means that I had to add yarn into the front neckline to finish binding off since I had already cut the yarn the 2nd time around, so I had to weave in ends directly in the center front of my bind off edge, which is really not great in a rayon yarn. I treat this very gingerly anyway, but now I have to check that stupid end to make sure I don't have threads sticking out the front of my shirt. This yarn and open design is also an interesting combination for snags. The first time I wore it, I tried to make sure I didn't use a purse that had a lot of hardware that would snag, but I still snagged it on the zipper within seconds of getting out of my car, lol. 

So that's my Dalloway :) This was an interesting project that was a bit out of my comfort zone, both to knit and to wear. I will say I don't know that I will get to wear it all that often just because I'm not the most careful with my clothing on the day to day, so I can't wear this to work, for example. I'm glad I made it though and now I have it when I do feel like it. I would be interested to see how it wear in wool though, so who knows - maybe I'll make one again in the future.

Summary:

Yarn: 725 yards Silk City Fibers Bambu 7 in Persimmon Colorway - $25.95

Pattern: Dalloway Blouse by Sydney Crabaugh - $6.50

Time: 5 weeks

Total Cost: $ 32.45