Gauge is 4 sts/inch, so I’m using larger needles.
Picked up 80 sts in the back and 88 in the front.
Used 3.75mm needles for the first 4 rounds, but I think it’s too loose, so I’m switching to 3.5mm. The neck was cut really wide, so I’m not afraid of tightening it up.
….. Well, it turned up I was wrong……
The picot bind-off tightens the neck quite a bit. I tried using larger needles (5mm), AND doing stretchy bind-off in between picots, but it’s still tighter than the rest of the fabric. I really wanted to have an off-shoulder tee, but unravelling picots is too messy, and I don’t feel like wasting more time and energy on this…
It’s now blocking aggressively – I hope that will help a bit.
(Actually, it did! Thanks God alpaca yarn is so stretchy!)
So I rate the pattern three stars for this reason, and also because it turns out poking holes with a blunt knitting needle in a knitted fabric is not such a good idea. I’ve never done this, so I couldn’t possibly imagine. Too many stitches were broken and are now starting to unravel… I’m afraid the fabric will break if they keep doing that… I’m using some transparent nail polish to try to stop that, but I have to be careful, as it can itch the skin after it dries.
On top of that, I’ve had the brilliant idea of using one of my favourite tees, an original Jónsi t-shirt, and now I’m afraid I’ve ruined it…
So, I would advise using a sharp needle to poke holes in the fabric, trying to break as few sts as possible, then possibly pulling the yarn with a crochet needle (or use a crochet needle to do both). Oh, and DON’T use your favourite t-shirt for this! Not until you’ve tested the techniques used!
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P.S. This is an original Jónsi tee, and it was inspired by one of my favourite songs.