Beam me up, Scotty

If Interweave Knits had sent me light pink yarn instead of light yellow, who knows--maybe I would have named my lace shoulder shell pattern "Captain Kirk"!*  When it came time to send the written instructions to the IK editors, I thought that just naming it "Lace Shoulder Shell" seemed kind of boring.  Then I had the idea to name it for a light yellow flower, and after deciding against "Daffodil" or "Freesia," I started looking for a nicely-named light yellow rose variety.  Here are some of the names I rejected in favor of "Lutea":  Peace, Soleil d'Or, Mermaid, Perdita, Topaz Jewel, and Golden Showers (yuck!).  So that is what light pink roses have to do with knitting--not much, really.

But my Captain Kirk turned out rather well, I think.  Pattern mods?  Of course!  Here they are:

I couldn't find any Classic Elite Sundance, so instead I used Misti Cotton, a worsted weight cotton/silk blend.  I didn't do a gauge swatch (gasp!) but the gauge seemed to be just about perfect.  There is some slight variation in the thickness of this yarn, but it didn't bother me--in fact I found it very nice to work with:  soft, resilient enough, with a slight sheen.  It blocked well too.

I customized the hip and waist shaping by casting on for size 36, then decreasing 8 times every 4 rows instead of 3 times every 8 rows, for a waist circumference of around 28".  After working even for 7 or 8 rows, I then increased 6 times every 5 rows, meaning that I was left with a bust circumference of about 34" instead of 36".  I worked the armhole shaping as if for size 32, which left me with the same number of stitches when it came time to do the short rows as size 36--so I followed the directions for that size.

The other change I made was to end the shoulder lace on a pattern Row 1 instead of 3.  This is the yarn over row, meaning that the number of stitches was increased; I've read that in lace patterns, you want to avoid casting off on this row because of the tendency of the pattern to spread.  However, when I made the Lutea sample, I found I had to fight the tendency of the lace to contract at the shoulder when seamed--even though I used a larger needle for the three needle bindoff, and worked very loosely--so I thought some spread might actually be a good thing!  I did still use a US size 10 needle for the bindoff.  I like the way the shoulders turned out--with more stretch than the original.

I considered doing a turned hem but decided to leave the simple stockinette bottom edge alone--yes, it rolls slightly, but I think of this as a pretty casual top, and the rolled edge is in tune with that.

*It's tempting to speculate on the whys and wherefores of that name:  William Shatner's florid complexion, perhaps?  His ever-youthful appearance in Star Trek reruns?  Perhaps it's a rapidly climbing rose, exploring the garden galaxy, as it were.  Or maybe it was just created by a Trekkie (but then why not "Spock," or "Uhura"?).