My True Nature Tee

A lovely nature-inspired lace design.

My next project is going to be the True Nature Tee by Stephanie Lotven, and that’s also knitted in animal fibers. But I’ve chosen 70% Bamboo/30% Cotton, and I’ve just knitted up a swatch to see what that turns out like.

I had to check what yarn weight it was because Thai yarns don’t use the Craft Yarn Council’s standard yarn weight system.

So, I used the wraps-per-inch (WPI), and I measured it as 18 wraps per inch which is a fingering weight yarn. It’s probably a little thinner than a commercial fingering weight, but I think it’ll work out.

The other thing I’ve found challenging is when you’re knitting with a different fiber than what the pattern says and also a different or lighter weight, that effects gauge and what size you should choose.

I found a helpful post by Anne Vally of Nourishing Things on using different weights than what’s recommended. She talked about gauge ratios.

Once a swatch is dry I’ll measure it and find out what my gauge is compared to what the pattern is in terms of how many stitches per row. Then, I’ll choose the size that matches my gauge in the bamboo and cotton yarn blend.

I’m looking forward to practicing the lace knitting pattern that’s part of the True Nature Tee. It’s amazing how these stitches, yarnovers, increases and decreases, make these beautiful effects.

It’s much more interesting than just plain stockinette.

Laura Nelkin, who’s a knitwear designer, had a tutorial posted on her Instagram reels about swatching with less yarn. Her technique is swatching with a little bit of yarn at one edge and not taking the floats around the back. I gave it a go.

She measures out the length each time and knits with that and then goes back to the working yarn.

But I found that a little fiddly with the bamboo/cotton yarn I swatched. It’s slipperier and I felt it wasn’t working as I wanted it to, so I just went back to using the method with the floats at the back.

I’d be interested to know what you think about swatching in the round, whether you prefer the traditional method or you’ve given Laura’s one a go.

I’ve been swatching with bamboo/cotton yarn in stockinette and that’s come up beautifully. It’s so light and drapey.

I’m excited to see the finished product but it’ll take time.

I’ve also been practicing the lace pattern repeats because there’s a few techniques in the design I’m not familiar with. Bless Stephanie for including video tutorials on those! They’re increases and decreases: a 5-stitch increase and a CDD (central double decrease.)

Once you know what you have to do it’s easy, so I’m thankful for some guidance.

I’d had such difficulty with the beginning of my new project.

I received some advice about knitting flat for a few rows before joining in the round (particularly with fine yarn). So I attempted that several times and found not only was I twisting it, but also seemed to be knitting reverse stockinette!

I’d done the stockinette stitch, and when I joined in the round, it started to look like garter stitch. Thought I was going to pull my hair out!

And the other thing I found was the color was dark and difficult to see on my wooden Rainbow Options Interchangeable Knitting Needles.

Perhaps I need new glasses.

Fortunately, the lovely people of Substack pitched in to give me excellent suggestions to fix the problem and other ideas to help me knit with darker yarn.

• Linda Hartley said: “You have not only twisted it but flipped it inside out when you joined. The four rows of flat knitting should help to avoid the twist, but it can happen to anyone. I twisted mine at a knit & natter the other day. When you line it up to join make sure your purls are on the inside and you should be fine. Also, daylight knitting is your friend with that shade.”

• Patricia J.L. 👻🧶🖊️ said: “I was telling my hubby the other day about the woes of knitting black yarn and how it’s hard to see the stitches. It doesn’t help that apparently, I’m at the age where my eye muscles have decided focusing on close stuff is just too. damn. hard. 😥”

• Meredith from Notes On Useful Beauty said: “Maybe get some lighter colored needles, so there is contrast supporting the stitches? I had similar problems one time using some beige yarn that was exactly the same color as the bamboo needles I was working with. When I switched to a metal pair that happened to be a good contrast color to the beige (lime green!) the difficulties were greatly reduced!”

Thank goodness for these people because that gave me some clues on what I was doing wrong.

I practiced on leftover yarn from my Tara Top and bigger needles. Lo and behold, I worked out how to knit flat first and then join in the round without twisting the stitches! And continuing with the stockinette so the knit and purl rows matched.

I was successful in casting on the second time.

If only my needles could talk! This latest row has had many mistakes. Missed yarnovers in the previous row have wreaked havoc!

Fixing these errors has been a herculean effort. I believe I'm back on track, but I have a niggling sensation there still might be more mistakes lurking.

Cross your fingers for me all is well on the next row. 😀

I was celebrating the completion of my lace yoke and stockinette rows where I was up to dividing the sleeves and the body stitches for my True Nature Tee.

I got to the last stitches only to find I was missing two. I’d thought after fixing my mistakes in the lace yoke; I had the correct amount of stitches, which was 352, but I only had 350.

That’s a reminder I should count the stitches every few rows.

I frogged back to see if I could find the mistake where I dropped those two stitches. And row after row after row, I was still counting 350 and I couldn’t see where I’d dropped those two stitches.

I pulled the needles out and I could unravel the yarn faster. But I missed where the marker was in relation to the pattern. That was important because the marker moved in different rows!

I thought, I can’t get this back! In the past, I would’ve burst into tears and been furious at my lack of ability.

But this time, I was calm, and I decided I’d frog it all and begin again. No tears or anger. I put that down to the fact I’m meditating every day and I’m practicing kindness towards myself.

Taking breaks also helps. I’m going to (as Linda Hartley said)“put it in the naughty corner and ask it to think about what it’s done.”

So I left the project alone.

The mistakes I’ve made are frustrating and I wish they didn’t happen, but that’s how it is. I’m reminding myself I can do better next time. As the wonderful Clara Parkes often says when signing off The Daily Respite: “onwards!”

After ripping out the first attempt I made, I'm taking things slowly and counting the stitches every few rows.

I've tried a new technique for slip slip knit, which I learned from Patty Lyons.

It's a slip slip knit all in one move. You insert your right-hand needle into the first stitch of the left-hand needle as if to knit.

You insert the tip of your needle around the back of the second stitch into the back loop. Then you wrap the yarn and pull it through.

It creates a neater and smaller slip slip knit that mirrors the knit two together.

Though it's slow going because I'm new to this technique, I'm a big fan of how it's turning out. It's much neater than what I was doing before (slipping the two stitches, putting my needle in front, wrapping the yarn and taking it through.)

That's been a good find for a new technique!

I finished the yoke!

This was the second attempt because I frogged the first one. Now I’m hopefully onto smoother sailing with knitting rounds of knit stitches. There’s a section of stockinette stitch before I divide the body and the sleeves.

I'm up to the simplest section of the stockinette body. It's a relief after the trials of the lace yoke! The simplicity of the stitch pattern underneath the lace makes it stand out.

I've been knitting row upon row of knit stitches as I work on the body of my True Nature Tee. I'm knitting the cropped version and there's about three inches left before I knit the one-by-one twisted rib at the bottom.

I'm tossing up the idea as to whether I do shorter sleeves. My plan is to work the sleeves and keep checking what they look like on my arms until I'm happy with the length. The actual pattern has the sleeve length just above the elbow.

I'm feeling mine will be shorter than that.

The body is nearly complete, and I've just got the twisted ribbing at the bottom left to knit and it's onto the sleeves. That's pretty exciting!

I’ve been testing out the SSK (slip slip knit) cast-off method.

I wanted to see how it compares with my usual method of knitting in pattern and passing the stitch over to bind off.

Why? Because it was time for the twisted rib cast off for my True Nature Tee! And I wanted to give it the best possible finish.

In my SSK method test, it turned out sloppy (on the left of the photo above.) The cast-off edge is visible on the front of the fabric, and I didn’t want that.

I tested my knitting in pattern and passing over method. It was neater and the cast-off edge sat at the bottom of the ribbing, which I much prefer (on the right.)

Now it’s on to the sleeves, and the end is in sight. It’s exciting!

Unfortunately, though, I always struggle with sleeves. Invariably, I get holes between either side of the picked up underarm stitches and the stitches that were held on the scrap yarn.

I use the magic loop method for knitting sleeves. I’m wondering if I’d be better with DPNs? No chance of finding out this time, as I don’t have DPNs on hand.

I’ll sew up the holes when I’ve finished the sleeve.

One thing I always struggle with is sleeves! I seem to always get holes on either side of the underarm.

Thanks to the advice from wonderful knitters here on Substack, I tried picking up extra stitches either side of the picked up underarm stitches and decreasing them on the next row.

This was to fix the problem I had with my first sleeve having two large holes under the arm, either side of the picked up stitches.

I was so pleased there were no obvious holes using this method!

The only thing I need to work on in a future project, is my tension when I first start the sleeve rows, there are sloppy stitches.

Interestingly my picked up stitches on the second sleeve looked neater.

Does anyone else experience it taking forever when knitting the second sleeve? It’s like my fingers can’t knit quickly enough in anticipation of finishing!

Knitting the cast off row on the second sleeve was surely in slow motion.

I washed it in cold water and I noticed a little of the blue dye washed out.

After a gentle squeeze to get most of the water out and a further press in a towel, I laid it out, used sewing pins to block it, and let it dry.

The fabric feels lovely on my skin and that blue, it’s so gorgeous.

My knitting skills are always evolving and I’m so chuffed with how this project turned out. It’s been a journey to be sure, after a few false starts and ripping out the first attempt at the Lace Yoke. All a distant memory now.

I’m going to love wearing this tee. 🙂

Completing it was such a highlight of this year!

I’m so happy with the fit and thrilled I don’t have to wear a camisole underneath. The fabric isn’t as see-through as it seemed to be when I knitted up the swatch.

With temperatures of 40°+ C during summer here, layers are just too hot!