Tudor Roses - Margaret Beaufort - Finished!

I finished up the knitting on this past Monday, wove in the ends and blocked.  I finished up the sleeves last weekend, and worked the collar and bands on Monday.  I had to adjust the number of stitches I picked up because of the modifications that I had made to the pattern, but the adjustments were straight forward.  I only picked up 40 stitches, instead of the 46 called for, and when I started working the stitch motif I had to increase 3 stitches, instead of only 2, to get a stitch count that would work with the pattern repeat.  I put the extra increase opposite the shoulder seam.

For the bands I picked up 2 stitches for every 3 rows, which seems to be a good rule of thumb for getting a band that doesn't pucker or wrinkle.  I ended up with 28 stitches on the peplum (the pattern called for 25) and 79 stitches from the peplum to the collar band.  I had to adjust the spacing button holes (reduced the spacing by 1 stitch), and I ended up with only 7 buttons instead of the 8 the pattern called for.

Here's a close up of the buttons - they are metal buttons.

I purchased them from MJ Trimming.  They have a pretty nice selection of metal buttons.

Pattern:  Margaret Beaufort, by Alice Starmore from Tudor Roses (2013 edition)
Yarn:  Alice Starmore Hebridean 3 Ply (517 g in Lapwing)
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Tudor Roses - Margaret Beaufort - One Sleeve Done!

I finished up the first sleeve last night and picked up stitches for the second sleeve.  When it came to the shaping I basically winged it.  When working a top-down set-in sleeve I generally don't work any sleeve decreases until I get to my elbow, that leaves me about 8 inches in which to work all of the sleeve decreases.  For this pattern I needed to work 13 decreases, but I don't like to work them any closer than an inch apart.  In the end I worked them every 10 rows, which is a bit over an inch apart for the pattern gauge (7.5 rows/inch), and which also made it easy to remember when I needed to work them because I started on row 90.  To get enough decreases I worked double decreases after I worked the first one (remember the whole winging it thing).  So on row 90 I just did the decreases on either side of the round marker, and then on the next 6 decreases I worked another set of decreases on either side of the stitch panel that runs down the length of the sleeve.  I worked those decreases as a k2tog before the panel and a ssk after the panel so the line of knit stitches that bracket the stitch panel would remain unbroken.  I used about a skein and a half on the first sleeve, which I think is pretty much on target for my yarn usage.  I will have a little over a skein (in 3 leftover cakes) to finish up the collar and the edging.


Pattern:  Margaret Beaufort, by Alice Starmore from Tudor Roses (2013 edition)
Yarn:  Alice Starmore Hebridean 3 Ply (517 g in Lapwing)
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Tudor Roses - Margaret Beaufort - Body Done!

I set aside my Liquid Gold Sinua while I ponder how many stitches I really want to pick up around the armhole for the sleeves and picked this project up instead.  I was fairly far along on the body when I last set it aside, almost done with the increases, and it didn't take me long to finish up the body and begin the shaping for the armholes and neck.  I shortened the torso, as I am somewhat high waisted - reducing the number of rows between the decreases to 4, but leaving the spacing of the increases the same - every 9 rows.  I also lengthened the armholes to give myself a little more room - I really don't like tight sleeves.  I was finally able to get a decent shot this morning after the sun came up and am now ready to pick up stitches for the sleeves.  I am going to work top-down set-in sleeves.  I recharted all of the charts in Stitchmastery so I could pull them into knitCompanion.  The charts are super easy - just knits and purls - but the book is super heavy - oversized hardcover - and awkward to work from.

I have yarn for the next project in the book (Elizabeth of York) - but it is colorwork and steeks (oh my!) neither of which I have really done before.  Okay, I've done some very limited colorwork, but I've never done steeks and I confess that they do scare me a bit.  I also ordered yarn for the next next project (Margaret Tudor), which is worked in one color, but has some very interesting construction going on, based on what I've gleaned from skimming the pattern.  I have to rechart both patterns so I can pull them into knitCompanion.

I almost abandoned this project for a couple of reasons.  The gauge this pattern is knit to is pretty tight, which makes it a little more tiring to work, and the color is dark so the stitch work really doesn't show very well unless you have very strong light.  The darkness of the yarn also makes it tougher to see what you're doing.  I think when I bought the yarn there were not as many colors on offer.  Now there are lots, including some of my favorites (like purple) and I was really tempted to order a different color and use this yarn for a different project in the book.  I was also a little nervous about running out of yarn.  You can see I had all sorts of "legitimate" excuses.  In the end, though I persevered, and I am glad that I did.  I have 4 skeins of yarn left, out of 10, so I think I will make it.

Pattern:  Margaret Beaufort, by Alice Starmore from Tudor Roses (2013 edition)
Yarn:  Alice Starmore Hebridean 3 Ply (517 g in Lapwing)
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Tudor Roses - Margaret Beaufort - Body Shaping

I have also been working on my Margaret Beaufort, which I haven't worked since early summer.  I have started my test knit, but it requires a bit more focus than I am sometimes capable of after a long day at work, so I am mostly working that on the weekends, and this during the week.  This is a very awkward photo, although it shows the color and the stitch details well.  I had to pin it to the dummy, so it appears to fit closer than it really would.  I have one more increase to work and then I need to figure out where to start the upper body shaping.

Pattern:  Margaret Beaufort, by Alice Starmore from Tudor Roses (2013 edition)
Yarn:  Alice Starmore Hebridean 3 Ply (517 g in Lapwing)
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Tudor Roses - Margaret Beaufort - Peplum Done

It took me a little while to wrap my head around what was going on with this peplum.  I love how the gathers come about solely through the use of knit and purl stitches.  I recharted the pattern into a continuous chart so I could knit the body as one piece - my usual method.  The short row shaping is worked on the front and back simultaneously - working the left front and back, and then the right front and back.  Knitting the edging was straight forward, and because the pattern of knot and knit stitches is worked over 4 stitches, the fact that I removed 4 stitches from the overall count when I converted to work as one piece had no net effect on my execution.  I would like to point out that these are knots and not nupps.  You know my philosophy on nupps.  Knots on the other hand are created by working into the front and back of a stitch, and then passing those extra stitches over the last stitch created.  Now I have to work more short rows to bring the knitting back up to the same level again, but before I do that I need to rechart the next set of charts into a continuous chart.

Pattern:  Margaret Beaufort, by Alice Starmore from Tudor Roses (2013 edition)
Yarn:  Alice Starmore Hebridean 3 Ply (517 g in Lapwing)
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Tudor Roses - Margaret Beaufort

This past weekend I decided to try again on Margaret Beaufort.  I pondered the swatch that I had done and the pattern and decided to try swatching again.  I started out swatching on US 3 needles, and then decided that I would try again on US 4 needles.  Yesterday morning I ravelled my existing swatch onto my Kniddy-Knoddy, wet the yarn and left it in the sink to dry.  Yesterday evening I knit up a full swatch on US 4, directly from the Kniddy Knoddy, and got gauge!

This was a very good thing as I had found trying to adjust the pattern to the gauge that I had gotten on larger needles to be something of a challenge, to put it mildly.  Of course I'm knitting the body as one piece so last night I cast on the stitches, but reduced each of the back pieces by one stitch and the front by two stitches, to account for the fact that I don't need them for seaming.  I also charted the peplum charts as a single chart and have imported it into knitCompanion.

It doesn't look like much, yet.

Pattern:  Margaret Beaufort, by Alice Starmore from Tudor Roses (2013 edition)
Yarn:  Alice Starmore Hebridean 3 Ply (517 g in Lapwing)
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Swatches

Today I did some swatches for my next projects.  I got this yarn as one of Sundara's Daily Dreams last month and have been contemplating what to make out of it.  It is aran silky merino in Gold in the Sky.  It is a 50/50 silk/merino wool yarn and comes 200 yards to 100 grams.  After some browsing on Ravely I came up with loppem by Norah Gaughan.  I actually have the yarn called for by the pattern - Berroco Palace - but it is a pattern I'm likely to do more than once and I thought it would look good in this yarn.

I knit the swatch on the needles called for - US 8 (5 mm) - casting on 22 stitches (18 for the swatch and 2 on each side for a garter stitch border).  I always work a couple of rows in garter before starting the knit section and keep the first and last 2 stitches in garter stitch.  I actually knit 21 rows so I ended after working a right side row and could work a knit row on the wrong side to finish up with a couple of rows of garter before casting off.  I had to stretch the swatch to get it to fill the 4 by 4 inch square, but the swatch took it easily and did not rebound when I took it off the needle.  The resulting swatch has a great drape.  For comparison I also swatched with the yarn called for by the pattern.

This swatch I had to stretch vertically to fill the 4 by 4 square.  It is also a 50/50 silk/merino wool yarn and comes 103 yards to 50 grams, so it is just slightly lighter weight than the aran silky merino.  The aran silky merino also has very little twist and is basically a single ply, whereas the Berroco Palace is a 4-ply.

I also swatched for my next Tudor Roses pattern - Margaret Beaufort.  The pattern calls for Hebridean 3 ply in Selkie.  I picked Lapwing for mine.

I do love the way the yarn comes packaged.
According to the pattern the gauge is 22 stitches and 30 rows on 4 mm (US 6) needles.  Having struggled some with gauge on Elizabeth Woodville I knew to be wary, but this yarn is a fair bit heavier than the 2-ply, so I gave it a try.  It didn't take me long to realize that my swatch would be too big so I pulled it off the needles and tried again on US 4 needles (3.5 mm).  Where the knitting on the US 6 needles seemed a little on the loose side, the knitting on the US 4 needles seemed pretty tight.  Too tight.  I looked up the yarn on Ravelry - it is categorized as a DK weight.  I looked at the standards and guidelines for needle size and gauge for DK weight yarn.  I also looked back at the Elizabeth Woodville pattern, which calls for a gauge of 23 stitches and 32 rows on 4 mm (US 6) needles.  This really puzzled me.  It just doesn't make sense given the weight difference between the two yarns, so I decided to ignore it and just see what I would get.  I didn't really want to knit 3 swatches so I compromised.  I knit 15 rows using the US 4, then did a purl row, 15 rows using US 5, another purl row, and then 15 rows using US 6.  I was swatching on my Addi click interchangeables, so changing the needle size was a breeze.

Here are the results:
US 4 (3.5 mm):  22 stitches = 4 5/8 inches, 15 rows = 1 3/4 inches
US 5 (3.75 mm):  22 stitches = 4 3/4 inches, 15 rows = 1 7/8 inches
US 6 (4 mm):  22 stitches = 5 inches, 15 rows = 2 inches

As you can see, I don't get stitch gauge with any of the needles, but I do get row gauge with the US 6.  Once the swatch dries I'll see which fabric I like best.  I have a feeling that I will go with the US 5.  I'll have to do a spreadsheet to convert the pattern to my gauge.