Yes, Yes, Nanette!
Sunday, August 31st, 2008I am knitting the Nanette Tee by Joan McGowan-Michael, of WhiteLies Designs. I’ve known Joan online for years and finally met her this last June at TNNA. It was so great to meet her!
Joan specializes in retro-inspired and shapely designs. She knows that women have curves and sometimes the curves are larger than those expected by ready-to-wear. She knows how to design items that fit those curves in a flattering way without resorting to a baggy cover up.
I’m in love with a good number of her designs. One very new one which should appeal to a good number of renaissance-shaped women, large or small, is the Evangeline Tunic which is knit in a fine DK-weight yarn. Spectacular in all ways!
My friend Rae would look so beautiful in Evangeline, I wish I had the leisure to knit one for her. I won’t be knitting it, but I love it so much I ordered the pattern. I wanted to “vote” for this quality artfulness even if I can’t make it come to life.
But I got a “tee” called Nanette for myself. It is such a luxury to take time and knit for myself. I sometimes knit socks because I don’t need to pay attention to a pattern. However, when I knit a top, or really anything someone else designed, I am stuck looking at that pattern. It takes time and focus, and I usually do not have focus to spare.
What made Nanette work for my schedule is that it is knit of really fat yarn. Now, I did not use the specified yarn, I needed to use something from my stash. And I did not have anything this fat in my stash for summer.
So I held together three yarns… Kim, an aran-weight tube in cotton/acrylic; Cascade Fixation, a cotton-lycra springy DK yarn, and a soy-silk blend sockyarn (like Tofutsies) from Ellen’s Half-Pint Farm in Rainforest colorway which I got last year at Michigan Fiberfest (there is another quality woman-owned fiber business for you). This is very ColorJoy. It’s a trick holding the elastic yarn with two non-elastic yarns but I’m OK with that challenge.
I swatched to get 3.5 stitches an inch, at the Stitch ‘n Pitch event just over a week ago. I love the colors, with raspberry, hot green and a bunch of tropical-water colors in the fingering weight. It should be a trick washing this without the raspberry dye running into the yellow=green, of course I did not think of that till I had nearly finished the top. I guess I’ll hand wash cold or put a dye magnet in the machine. It can still be put in the drier.
Another big reason Nanette works for me right now, is that it is knit in merely two pieces (plus thin knit-on neck/arm edgings). It’s not truly a tee, it instead has wonderful shaped cap sleeves. They remind me of The Jetsons, which is odd because the sweetheart neckline is very Renaissance. Whatever the influence, they are all girl-friendly details.
I usually wear roomy tunics (read: long and baggy), but I have knit a few smaller summer tops and I really wear them more than I expected I would. this top will go well with my broomstick skirts which have so many colors in them.
I bound off the front this morning. I’m hoping to cast on the back before the sun goes down. I’m off to do just that!
So far, I’m being lazy like a good vacationer…