Damn, Coachella is hot!

I've been one blog-happy woman this past week, and this post brings you another FO! It's Coachella, and since I already described it over on the Coachella KAL page, I'm just going to (mostly) copy and paste the description like a punk. But let me just say first that Coachella is soo sexy, so hot. Damn, for real hot. Like, you know, where you say "damn!, that's hot" and you sing the "hot" in a long note falsetto? It's that kind of hot. Okay, here we go:

So I decided to make a night-time going out type of Coachella. It's always a little risky to go for the hand knits on an evening out, but I was willing to try it.

Turned out to be the fastest knit ever. The only wearable I knit faster was the thong, and I didn' hurt my hands at all, taking breaks and stretching every 15 minutes or so. CO Thursday night, finished Saturday morning, wore it out Saturday night. I estimate total knitting time was less than 10 hours.

I swatched 3 yarns for this. The first was Louisa Harding Glisten in black. It, like the called-for yarn, is a 100% nylon tape/ribbon type yarn, and it has shiny bits. I really wanted to use this yarn for this top, I had just the right amount in my stash. But after swatching, I saw that it is rather stiff and would not have good drape, and to get gauge (or anything above the ball recommended gauge) gives me open mesh that is see-through and looks like a fish net.

Then I tried Berroco Bonsai, which is a 97% bamboo 3% nylon yarn. The nylon is shiny and adds sparkle. If I had had this yarn in black or white or gold, I would have chosen it, but I had it in a sage type color and it's not really what I want for going out at night. I think I will make it again in this color and yarn for a day look. This yarn is very drapey and very suited to this pattern, I think.

I finally decided on using some Alchemy Synchronicity that I had in my stash, which is a single ply 50% silk 50% merino yarn. It will be warmer than the others, but that's not too much of a problem since it's for going out at night. It has a nice drape. The color is Pewter. I got this yarn at 66% off (otherwise, who can afford it?) and was sawing it for something else, but I guess I can manage to do the other thing with another stash yarn.

Also, for the neck roll part I held together a strand of Drops Glitter yarn, which is very fine at 10 grams giving over 700 yards. It is a metallic yarn that adds a little sparkle. I'm going to copy the modifications I saw in someone else's Coachella and do arm edging as well, and I will hold the sparkly yarn for that edging, too.

I knit the smallest size even though I am the 2nd smallest size because from washing my gauge swatch (really, swatching and washing your swatch is worth the knowledge, people) I knew this yarn loosened up a bit after washing. I'm glad I did this, otherwise the drape would have been too much for me. As it was my bra sometimes showed. I wore it with a strapless bra, and in fact sometimes you could see the top of the band in the back armholes area. I saw it in some of the pictures I took, and had to readjust things so it wouldn't show. I don't know what to do about this, as the armholes were already as tight as could comfortably be. I have to say that I don't really think this top works super well with a bra, only if the top sits just right and doesn't move around too much. Oh, I'd also do fewer increases towards the bottom, as it puckers there as it is now. Anyway, here it is:





That's the thing about summer knits. Some people don't like summer knits, but I love them. No sleeves! You get done so fast.