Slanting Gretel Tee

I have written previously about this pattern and I finally used some super soft baby suri alpaca/wool blend yarn that I'd gotten on clearance to knit it up. It's possibly the softest yarn I've ever touched. Yay for using from the stash!

I changed the sleeves from caps to being short sleeves. It was wonderfully easy to modify the sleeve length. I stopped because I ran out of yarn. I'm always cold, wearing a sweater over a sweater seems like a less than ideal option, and I don't wear long sleeved t-shirts so using it as a second layer doesn't fit my style.

My gauge swatch was somehow misleading and it turned out larger than I'd wanted. The one in the magazine was modeled with some slight negative ease. I estimate that I've to about 2" of positive ease in the final creation.

The pattern has lots of potential in my opinion. It's well written and easy to follow although the specific instructions look more complicated than the goal they're trying to achieve. It's not the pattern creators fault though. There's no good way to just verbalize what is being accomplished in a way that would allow knitters of all abilities to follow the pattern.

My favorite parts - I love the neckline and the cables. (Note: if you knit this, make sure you cast the neck off a little tightly or it will look puckery.)


What I would change - I want to knit it again and add a couple of inches to the bottom and take a couple of inches from the circumference, maybe even putting in some gentle waist shaping as I work the back. That said, I think it would work better even if it was just a size smaller. Its current dimensions manage to work together to be extremely unflattering on my body type - I can manage to look chubby and short waisted on my own without additional help from my clothes. :)

Q, thanks for taking the pictures!