I knit a Valencia for myself! It’s almost become a tradition now for me to knit myself a version of my amirisu designs but in black. I figure if I’m going to spend time knitting a pattern again, I want to be sure it’s something that’s going to get worn a lot.
This is the first time I’ve knit one of my own designs for the second time using the suggested yarn. In fact, I think it’s my second time ever knitting any pattern with the suggest yarn 😅 It was nice, not needing to swatch! (Because I already had when I knit the original sample, that is; you should always swatch!)
This time I knit the size M and I lengthened the body and sleeves because I’m taller (170 cm / 5′ 7″) than the pattern was designed for. I also decided to try a high-low hem, just to change things up a little. For that I had to make sure I picked up the same number of stitches in the main colour for the side trims from the front as well as the back so that the contrast trims would line up.
In total I added:
- 7.5 cm / 3″ to the back
- 2.5 cm / 1″ to the front
- 5 cm / 2″ to the sleeves
The split is as high as written (when measured along the front piece). As I lengthened the front by 2.5 cm / 1″, it comes down a little bit lower on me than the sample, more like the design and the fit on the model.
In the pattern the joining of the trims is done with a 3 needle bind-off so that the pattern is completely seamless, but I thought I might want to adjust the height of the split after blocking. I did this by binding off the entire trim on both sides and then seaming the sides together from the underarm down (first using a main colour yarn tail and a contrast colour one when I got to that portion) using a good old mattress stitch seam. In the end I didn’t need to adjust the length of my seam, but it was a good experiment anyway!
Details
Size: M
Fit: 20 cm / 8″ positive ease
Yarn: Knitting for Olive Merino
Colours: Licorice (MC) and Putty (CC)
Modifications: added length to body and sleeves; high-low hem
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