Lutterloh Knitting

It’s been some time since I sewed the dress in my last post, and in the interim I’ve made another Lutterloh pattern. I had said I wanted to draw out the tank top pattern on my knitleader and knit it on the Brother 940, and I did just that. I went with this simple number:

I drew out the pattern on paper manually, using the Lutterloh ruler, and then cut it out and traced it onto the knitleader mylar sheets. I included the dart, even though in retrospect I probably didn’t need to.

I chose a yarn and a stitch pattern (a very hard task for me). I wanted to go with wool instead of acrylic given that this is going to be a summer garment, and for some reason I wanted to go with bright colours. I had a bunch of individual skeins of KnitPicks Palette that I thought it would be good to use up, and settled on this beauty of a lace pattern from Stitch World (#158 if memory serves):

Now why I chose to do these colours is a bit of a mystery to me some months later, given that I never wear ANY of them, but I do really like how the yarn knitted up. It’s just two pieces, front and back, knitted from the sheet – although I did add ribbing at the bottom for a welt – and then foldover ribbed bands for the neck and both arm holes, using a method from a pattern in Machine Knitting Monthly that always works out well for me. Briefly, cast on ribbing in a large stitch size, knit several rows, decrease the stitch size and knit a few more, decrease again for a couple of tight fold rows, repeat the process in reverse for the other side of the rib, take off the comb and hook your large starting loops onto corresponding needles, knit a row at regular stitch size, hang the garment wrong side facing on the needles, knit a row at a larger stitch size to join it all together, then cast off around the gate pegs. Easy right?

You’ll typically want to join a shoulder before you do the neck band so you can do it in one piece if you have enough needles. I didn’t, due to the larger scoop neck, so I did front and back separately and then sewed them after. Shoulders were joined before I knit the arm bands. And then finally, sew everything else together. I can’t remember offhand if I did the side seams on the machine or on the Bellinky, but I suspect the latter because I was pretty sick of casting off around the gatepegs for the bands by that point. The (almost) finished product, that I have affectionately dubbed the Mrs. Roper tank top looks like this:

As you can see on the sides, the darts sort of messed up the stripe matching, which annoys me slightly. They don’t make enough of a difference to the fit that I’d want to bother with them again, I don’t think. At least not in this stitch. I had to knit the held stitches back to non-working position on ravel cord since you can’t use hold position with the lace carriage, which was rather fiddly. For the armhole and neck shaping I just cast off instead of doing that as it was easier and I wasn’t worried about stretch.

The final product fits, but I do think the armholes are a bit larger than I would prefer. Not so much a problem in a sweater, but for a tank top I don’t love having my bra sticking out the arm holes, particularly as it is wool and will stretch out a little with wear, so I like to wear a camisole top underneath. I have had this fit issue with several patterns, and I think I’ve finally figured out why. I have a “generous” bust measurement as opposed to my waist measurement, and should probably be making a smaller overall chest size and doing a FBA (full bust adjustment) to account for that, versus making the whole top larger based on the bust measurement. That’s a lot more work, and I’ve never actually done it, but I have looked into it briefly and it seems it can be done – even to a Lutterloh pattern.

On something like a sewn tank top it’s pretty easy to just grab an inch at the straps and pull the whole thing up, but not so for this shirt as I’d have to dismantle the neckband and armhole bands, and that simply isn’t going to happen, ha. I guess I could just serge over it, but it was a lot of work to get a nice finish, and I’m not in a hurry to ruin it.

I keep meaning to find a long-sleeve turtleneck to wear underneath it, which could take this interesting piece through the winter. It’s a bit loud for some, but if you know anything about me that’s pretty on-brand. I am just about ready to tackle the original Lutterloh pants I was looking at last spring, but unfortunately my size may have changed somewhat, so I’ll wait a little while before I try that, mainly to avoid drawing the darn thing out again!

Happy new year!