1.30.2015

mimic take two

I decided I needed a mimic of my own after finishing the first one I knit. I knew that I wanted one in my size for sure. I set the project in my mental queue and got back to finishing another project I was working on. The project, another blog freebie, that I was working on happened to be knit out of two skeins of Little Brother held together and the light bulb came on. I needed my mimic to be marled! I have this current obsession with anything marled, thanks to Anna from Tolt Yarn & Wool. I quickly finished the project and got to choosing my two colors. At first, I thought I wanted a bold black & white sort of mix, so the obvious choice would have been Cracked Pepper and Sea Salt or Hazelnut, our darkest and lightest colors, but that was the color mix I intended to use for another version of the current project I was doing and knew I might get sick of seeing it. In the end, I decided on a more subtle mix of Cracked Pepper and Saba together. I'm very happy I did.


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The darker cakes are: Cracked Pepper + Saba & the lighter cake is: Hazelnut + Poppy Seed


And, voila! I have myself a marled mimic...


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Pattern: mimic
Designer: me
Yarn: YOTH Yarns Little Brother (held double)
Colorways: Cracked Pepper + Saba
Note: Made some alterations to pattern, see below.


And, because I can't leave well enough alone... I changed my cast on, I didn't ease in my sides during seaming, leaving them asymmetrical and I added side zippers, which was an adventure (see below for my tips and tricks).


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I love the way it all turned out. I just know that I'll end up wearing this all the time. The length is tunic"y", the dark marled fabric is so flattering on and I'm loving the gold metal zippers.

Here are my pattern notes, in case you would like to make one of your own:

- I swatched properly and needed to go down to a size US 7 needle to meet gauge. That's my warning to you to swatch!

- I ended up using just under 6 balls (3 Cracked Pepper & 3 Saba, 3 total marled cakes) of Little Brother for the L/XL size.

- I used the following tubular YO cast on method (for front and back):

With waste yarn, cast on 94 sts. Cut waste yarn. Turn.

Using the project yarn, k1, *YO, k1; rpt from * to end.

Working flat, begin double knitting:

Row 1: *Sl1 purlwise wyif, k1; rpt from * to last st, sl1 purlwise.

Row 2: K1, *Sl1 purlwise wyif, k1; rpt from * to end.

Repeat last two rows once more.

Begin K1, p1 ribbing. After working a few rows of ribbing, remove waste yarn.


- I knit in 1x1 ribbing for 1", ending with a RS row. Then I did an adjustment row:

(WS) P2tog, purl to last two sts, p2tog tbl (I considered this Row 1 of the Ribbing Pattern), 91 sts on needle.

I continued in written pattern for the rest of the front and back instructions.

- I skipped the side seams and bottom hem (not needed with tubular cast on used).

- I did the shoulder seams and then blocked the garment per instructions, hanging it to dry.

- Once blocked, I seamed the sides using mattress stitch from the sleeve edge down, leaving a 7 1/2" opening unseamed (measuring from the bottom of the front hem up, the back piece was 3" longer, leaving me 10 1/2" unseamed on that side).

- Then I used Tech Knitters No Sew Zipper tutorial to set in my 6" gold metal zippers. I love Tech Knitter, by the way, and I'm so happy that my friend, Kate Oates, reminded me of the tutorial after posting on Instagram an in progress shot!

Here are my tips and tricks for using the Tech Knitter No Sew method:

- I used one size needle smaller to pick up sts on zipper and along the side seams of garment.

- I recommend using a wood needle for the zipper st loops that you pick up to keep everything in place. Metal kept slipping out for me.

- Pick up side seam sts in the place where zipper will be attached on garment first to get a count of how many loops you will need to pick up along the zipper edge. I picked up 29 sts from the top of the opening down 6" (the length of my zipper).

- I used a thin pink chalk pencil (Sewline Tailor's Click Pencil) and marked up my zipper fabric to fit all 29 loops I would need to pick up along the fabric edge. Trying to figure out how far apart to space them was the trickiest part for me. Here is how I did it to make it easier: since I had an odd number, I knew I would have a center st. I marked my two edges (top and bottom), center, and then I found the center of the two halves. I now had 5 markings like this:

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I then subtracted those 5 sts from the 29 st total count = 24 sts and divided that between the 4 sections I needed to fit those sts into = 6. I then eyeballed 6 markings into each of the 4 sections. I sometimes didn't line them up nicely, so I used a wet microfiber cloth to erase the markings and started over as needed.

- I left the zipper open (easier to work with that way) while chalk marking all 29 sts on the first side and then I zipped it up and copied on the other side. Half the work! Also, be careful not to rub off the chalk markings while working.

- I then used a 1.3mm crochet hook instead of a latch hook. The rug latch hook that I had purchased was way too big and I didn't want to wait anymore. It was a little frustrating at times to get the yarn not to split while trying to pull it through the zipper fabric. I would recommend using a latch hook per the tutorial, if you are able to find a small enough one.

- I used one strand of Little Brother in the darkest color to match the zipper as best as possible. This made the zipper fabric not buckle. If you are using a larger weight yarn than fingering, I would recommend finding a matching fingering weight counterpart to use for the zipper portion of your project. You only need a yard or two, depending on the length of your zipper.

- I followed the sew lines on my zipper fabric to keep my sts picked up nice and straight. Here is an action shot:

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- I then used three needle bind off to attach the zipper to the side seam on each side.

- I also hand sewed, using needle and matching thread, the two bottom edges of the zipper fabric down on the WS to make it all look nice and clean.


I'm happy I did these zippers, because I can tell you that it's not really as scary/hard as I thought it would be. After I figured out the little tricks to make it easier, it went fairly fast. Now, it's your turn!

Hugs & stitches!

-Ve

P.S. If you would like us wind you some marled cakes when shopping with us online, just leave us a note during checkout and we'll be happy to do that!

P.P.S. We're headed to Knitting Bee in Portland, OR, and Stitches West in a few weeks (more on that soon) and this mimic will be along for the ride. Stop by our Knitting Bee trunk show (Feb. 16th, 6-9pm) or our booths (1040, 1042, 1139, 1141) at Stitches West to try her on and see my beautiful zipper handy work in person.

5 comments:

  1. It looks fabulous. Your design mods are very on-trend. Congrats!

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  2. It looks so good! Thanks for sharing the zipper setting-in process - it's such a nice, polished detail and suits the design really well.

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  3. Very nice and thanks for the heads up on the tech knitter tutorial, I've bookmarked for future reference, this looks way better then sewing.

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  4. Your mimic looks fantastic! Love the zipper. I've saved the pattern on Ravelry.

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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