Zena

I finished seaming Zena Thursday night. I'm very happy with the results.

Recall that I knit this with 2 strands of Habu A-33 Merino (one black, one a light olive) and one strand of Habu Silk Mohair hand-dyed Kasuri in green. The resulting fabric is very open and drapey, but the mohair makes it less transparent and gives it some body.

I made a few changes to the pattern:

• After several attempts, I gave up trying to make the collar by picking up the stitches on each side. It just looked messy. I had even knitted several inches of the back before deciding to rip back and simply re-knit the back of the collar as a separate flap and then seam the three parts together later.
• I did not use the larger needle on the sleeves, as directed, nor did I switch to a smaller needle for the last 4 inches.
• I knitted the sleeves with the knit side, rather than the purl side called for in the pattern.
  Also, I knitted the sleeves flat because I my circs weren't flexible enough to magic loop and I wasn't into DPNs.
• The sides and sleeves were joined with invisible seams using a sportweight yarn from the stash that had similar colors.

As previously mentioned here, the pattern was a bit of a challenge given the errors and the quirky wording, but it was well worth the effort.

I truly love Zena. It is the perfect foil for the Habu yarns, as many of us suspected.




I had planned to knit Neptune using the A-33 and silk mohair with a strand of Shosenshi Paper, but I'm thinking that combination might be more appropriate with Jess. Fun things to ponder.