Friday, May 09, 2008

One-shoulder tunic

My fresh-off-the-needles tank top makes me feel like I'm wearing a dramatic Grecian costume, as if I were in a Martha Graham dance.*


And I love it! It's knit from a handspun, rosemary-dyed silk yarn from Avril in Japan, with a cottony texture that suggests tussah or muga rather bombyx silk.

The construction is based on the One-Shoulder Tunic in Teva Durham's Loop-d-Loop. Her pattern used ribbon tape on a size 13 needle; I was using a much lighter yarn on size 5 needles, so I had to change the pattern considerably to adjust to my gauge.


In addition, I added a few inches of crochet to the bottom to keep it from curling, and a few rows of crochet to widen the strap and stabilize the top edge (I might even go back and add a few more rows in the future). I could've added waist shaping, but because it already had some negative ease I didn't think it was necessary.

Martha Graham was my high-brow cultural reference for this project. I have a low-brow reference as well. Do you remember the song that never ends? Back when I was a kid, singing that song was a sure-fire way to be annoying. Similarly, it made for an annoying theme as I knitted this top: "This is the knit that never ends, it just goes on and on my friends. I guess I started knitting it not knowing what it was, and I'll continue knitting it forever just because..."


It took me forever to make this, because I was working with a yarn that was an unknown (and stretched a bit) and because the strap fitting was a bit tricky. I had to do the strap and top inch three times, at 2 hours each. I had to do the bottom crochet three times, at 2 hours each. It became a joke at my weekly knitting night that I was still endlessly working on it. But all's well that ends well!

*I love modern dance and took Graham classes for years, so this was the first thing I thought of when I put on this tunic.

8 comments:

Knit Witch said...

Looks great! I love the color!

Anonymous said...

so beautiful. i tend to think of one-shouldered get-ups as a tad ice capades but this is gorgeously regal. nice work!

alisa

Nathan O'Brien said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Aidan said...

Very nice. I'm impressed you didn't just run out of patience and make it a tube top--forget the strap! Definitely all's well that ends well. Modern dance? You are full of artistic surprises! Kim

Aidan said...

P.S. Sorry I deleted a previous comment, in case you noticed. It was only because I posted it before I realized I was signed in under my husband's name. I thought I should change it to me instead :) .

Macoco said...

The tunic looks beautiful on you. It's an absolute perfect fit and the color is very flattering.

Veronique said...

I like the detail of the crochet hem. And the strap is lovely!

Wendy said...

This is lovely. I too love modern dance, even though my mom force-fed it to me in the 70's.

You look so wonderful in your top.