#needleworkmonday | Dennis the Menace Stripes

Source: Dennis the Menace and Gnasher copyright: DC Thompson and Co.

Dennis the Menace was one of a series of comic strips in the Beano, a popular comic in many childhoods, including mine. The children in the Beano were always subversive, often unruly, and frequently got one over on the adults.

I was always very taken with Dennis's red and black striped jumper (a similar one was worn by Minnie the Minx, with a fetching black beret). Last summer (or maybe the summer before), I bought a job lot of cotton/linen mix yarn in a sale, in two colours, enough to make a top. I've been wondering what to make with it ...

Then @cryptocariad posted news about the latest edition of Knitty.com, "the longest running free knitting magazine on the web", which included a pattern called Opportune:

Source Opportune by Emily Ringelman; photo by Jim Ringelman.

I liked the relaxed look of Opportune, the easy construction and, especially, the hood. I've been wanting to learn how to design and add a hood to garments. The pattern uses simple garter stitch edgings, and introduced me to a new technique: shaping using short rows and a technique called wrap and turn (w&t), which prevents holes appearing when you turn in short row knitting.

I'm still working mainly on learning construction of garments, plus the yarn I was going to use has a thick and thin construction, which creates texture in the knitting, so I decided to stay with superfast stocking stitch rather than the lace pattern in Opportune.

I've chosen to knit the body in one piece, back and fronts together. I'm going to try the wrap and turn short rows for shaping the shoulders, and then pick up stitches around the armholes to create some simple sleeves (probably three-quarters). I'm hoping I have enough yarn for the hood!

Here's the foundation 2x2 rib and the start of of the stocking stitch and stripes. I was planning to do a swatchtape to test the tension but, having got this far, I couldn't bear to do the rib all over again. The flat measurements (ie the knitting was not stretched) were right for my body measurements and I know my tension gets more relaxed as the knitting progresses, so I went for it :)

It's always touch and go when you have an idea if your head - is it going to work? I was pleased when the stripes started to match the image in my head. I liked the texture of the yarn as it was knitting up as well. The colours in this picture are probably closest to the colour of the yarn.

I cast off about ten stitches for under each arm and then continued knitting separate fronts and back, on the same circular needles, with three lots of yarn. Nightmare! The problem could be solved with a nice crocheted yarn pouch with eyelets, that held all the balls of yarn snugly and prevented them from becoming tangled. I'd use that method again if I was knitting a pattern across the fronts and back, but here I'm completing the remaining stripes separately with one ball of yarn on the needles at a time! The drape is gorgeous.

The top needs about three stripes to reach the top of the armholes and then I'll work out how to join the shoulders using wrap and turn short rows. How much yarn would you say is in a hood? About 50g? I might hold a ball back for that and see how much I have left for the sleeves.

Last week, @crosheille wrote about fitting a zip and it occurred to me that a nylon zip might be the right front fastening for this top. Has anyone any experience of sewing a zip into a knitted garment?

#needleworkmonday with @crosheille, @muscara and @marblely
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