The honeymoon's over.

Guess I'll have to find something else to wear. Hopefully something that won't get me drafted into the NFL.

Well, after several successful projects it seems the knitting gods felt the need to slap my ass down a notch and chose knitty's Honeymoon Cami as their vehicle of choice.

I used Elann Sonata, swatched using size 6s (see, I even swatched this time!), and ran it through the w/d. It's a bit of a crunchy yarn but the swatch held up exceptionally well, shrinking in length a bit but without any pilling or fuzzing. In fact, it didn't even look like it had been washed. My gauge was off by a stitch, but since I didn't have a 24" in 7, I calculated the necessary adjustments and leapt in.

Although the twisted rib was a little hard on the hands, overall it was an easy pattern to follow. I did end up frogging the top sections a couple of times, once to try and tighten up some wonky rows, once because I forgot to bind off the second set of armhole stitches on the left side (after of course, I was already done).

The i-cord straps surprisingly turned out very well on the needles, which was a pleasant surprise! I redid the grafting a few times to try and connect the end of the cords to the live stitches as seamlessly as possible. (Turning the work at the end of the i-cord for a row seemed to work best.)

Unfortunately, it appears my boobies are a tad bigger in my head than they are in real life - the top of the cami ended up significantly oversized for my dimunitive rack. The waist fits okay, but the bottom is a few inches too large as well. Turns out gauge can change over the course of a garment - imagine that! - especially when you knit at 2am on a Saturday. *sigh*

Bag lady

Here's how the numbers stack up:

Pattern measurements
Bust: 32"
Waist: 28"
Hem: 32"
Length: 20"

Pre-wash measurements
Bust: 33.5"
Waist: 29"
Hem: 30.5"
Length: 19.5"

Post-wash measurements
Bust: 33.25"
Waist: 28.5"
Hem: 29"
Length: 16.75"

The inconsistent shrinkage post wash leaves me scratching my head. The only explanation I can think of (besides chaos theory) is that my gauge was clearly looser at the top, so the tighter the knit, the higher the shrink factor? But even knowing that cotton shrinks more in length than width, I certainly wasn't expecting it to by nearly 3"! Oh, and let's not forget the straps - they shortened so much, the top makes me look like an linebacker (man, slap some wax on my back and you could use me as a surfboard).

Juuust seeing something...

Luckily, Sonata is an inexpensive yarn and the pattern was free, so this learning experience only cost me about $15. It's not a total loss, I can wear it around the house with my jammies. Or, if I run into Dolly Parton's Mini Me, maybe I'll just give it to her.

Honeymoon('s Over) Cami
Pattern: knitty's Honeymoon Cami
Yarn: Elann Sonata
Needles: Holz & Stein ebony 6, 24"
Size: Small (well, intended size anyway)
Lesson learned: Check the ever-changing gauge of life as you go. And stop knitting at 2am, fool.