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FO: Fantine!

Even a drip of water will eventually wear away rock if applied frequently enough, and thus it is with knitting. A few rows here and there mean I am finally able to say, “Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce Mademoiselle Fantine!”

French Girl Knits: Fantine

Pattern: French Girl Knits “Fantine”
Yarn used: Nearly 4 skeins of Rowan Polar at 109 yards per skein
Needles: 11US
Start: August 27, 2007
End: October 1, 2007

You may know that my version differs from the pattern somewhat. As previously indicated, the texture of the yoke was the result of a mistake I made – one that stems from the vagueness of the 3/4 Mandarin Collar version of the pattern where it states “work until last 5 stitches”. The row starts row with a left cross, purl, left cross, so I assumed that “work until last” meant work in established pattern, i.e. left crosses. So I did.

Fantine: front yoke detail
When I discovered that the pattern as written made no sense to me, I changed the yoke texture to a combination of left and right crosses aligned with the center back, then switched to stockinette stitch except for the front bands, as per pattern.

Fantine: back yoke detail

Other modifications

Yarn substitution
Instead of Rowan Big Wool (2 stitches per inch) and 17US needles, I used discontinued Rowan Polar, stashed from a sale last year. Polar clocks in at 3 stitches per inch, with size 11US the suggested needles. A little math to make the same size sweater meant I needed to add 20 stitches to my cast-on count.

Length
The pattern schematic shows the neck to border cast-off measurement of 13.5″. A friend who’d already made Fantine warned me that this cropped finished length tends to ride up in the back which, given my size, is just not an attractive look. I made the executive decision to add 5.5″ to the total length. To keep things in scale, I also lengthened the 3/4 sleeves somewhat to meet the bottom edge of the garment.

The verdict

I would definitely do this again with my modifications. I’ll likely stick with smaller gauge yarn and needles, too, instead of the super-bulky Big Wool. The resulting garment doesn’t feel quite so chunky and drapes a bit nicer, as well. This one’s a keeper!

October 2nd, 2007 | Tags: | Category: Migrated blogger posts

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