Summer Knitting - Part 2

First, I would like to let my subscribers know that I switched from Feedburner, which discontinued its email subscription service, to follow.it. Hence, email posts from Knitting Andrea will be sent by follow.it and will look a little different. Hopefully, you will find the new emails nicer than the old ones. Follow.it has excellent reviews and seems to be a good Feedburner replacement, with the addition of some customization options for you, the readers, as well.

Now, back to knitting. During a craft store visit with my daughter to pick up embroidery kits for her (her new hobby), I glanced at a yarn with a beautiful silvery sheen. Since I have a soft spot for silver-colored yarn, I just couldn't walk by it without touching it. It was very soft and, predictably, I ended up buying a few skeins thinking of a summer shirt. The yarn's name is Truboo and is made by Lion Brand. It contains 100% rayon from bamboo, which I have not worked with before.

Initially, I wanted to make a shirt with cables and lace details; however, the yarn was so splitty that I ended up starting the shirt over using only stockinette stitches and basic K1P1 ribbing around the neck and at the end of the sleeves and body. I didn't use a pattern and just winged it, ending up with a loose-fitting top-down shirt with raglan sleeves. As the material turned out a little thicker than I would enjoy wearing during the summer, I decided to change the short sleeves to 3/4 length and the shirt into a light sweater.

I used tubular or sewn bind off after the ribbing to make it more elastic. I really like how neat and finished the sewn bind off edges appear compared to those of a knitted bind off.

Overall, I am very happy with the final product and like how it looks on me. My only regret is how I shaped the neck. I wish I had written out the pattern, instead of just winging it, and made the neck curve smoother. In addition, I love the sheen and softness of the material. However, it is unlikely that I will buy yarn made from bamboo again. The sweater took 6 days to air dry after washing it! Apparently, bamboo fabric absorbs a LOT of water but is not recommended to be machine dried due to extensive shrinkage. Although the sweater became soft again once dry, while wet it was also very stiff, wrinkled, and fragile. Laying it out to dry seemed more fussy than that of a lace shawl.