Hand-knit Cotton Camisole

One camisole, knitted in mercerized cotton yarn on size 3 needles. It sounds tedious, but it actually only took three weeks, and the results are worth a little fight with unyeilding cotton yarn. I used GGH Scarlett, in a teal color. The pattern is in the book, Beyond Wool. It is blocked, and not in a sloppy way. The pattern specifically says not to block out the curve at the bottom of the lace panel. The recommended yarn is mercerized cotton, just a different brand (Jaeger Pure Cotton). I think Scarlett is quite similar.  I started out with about 38" at the bottom and decreased down to what I thought would be 34" or so. The bottom band is knit on size 2 straights, and is all purl (I wonder why?), producing garter stitch. Then you decrease and knit on size 3s. I switched to circs, and had good gauge at first. Then it got smaller, and smaller anndd....

At one point, it was only 30" around. I frantically started increasing, but was a little late. I did add about an inch right before the armholes. I had my doubts, but shouldn't have. After blocking, it measured exactly as I wanted it. The 30" had stretched to 34", making the bust 35". I shouldn't have worried, but I still underestimate the amount of negative ease I need in a fitted garment.


I'm afraid it may grow a bit more, but I can usually block out too much width by stretching it longer. (Offside: The quilt it is resting on is an inherited one, made from old flour-sacking. No, I don't like the bright green fabric they used with the flour sack prints; it wasn't my choice.)

I really like the pattern. The placement of the decreases along the neck and armhole produces such a neat rolled edge. The only real modification I made was to knit the back plain, leaving out the lace panel. Since I had to finish the back center section someway, I used an i-cord bind-off for the middle 20 stitches, so it matches the rolled edges. Doing this, I found I need more practice in my grafting. I had trouble matching the beginning of the i-cord to the side, and then more trouble grafting the straps. The straps are not i-cord, although they look it. Just plain stockinette, 4 stitches wide, so they roll up. You wouldn't think I'd have had a problem grafting them. But I did.
The other change, not a big one, was to knit it in the round to avoid purling. I see now, after wearing it, that the natural biasing of this yarn would have been limited by side seams. As it is, it tends to bias around the entire cami. I think washing and drying flat will help. However, if I were to make it again, I'd do the purling to get the benefit of side seams.