This is Charlie. Charlie is a friend, a mermaid, a sex educator, and a Ravenclaw. I appreciate many things about Charlie, not the least of which how Charlie was like “wait, let’s make this a lil’ bit queerer and a lil’ bit better with tasteful sideboob.” I knitted most of this for them while watching Supernatural and when I felt stressed during Babeland contract negotiations outside the RWDSU office.
Charlie likes: Japan, the ocean, candy, bi visibility and representation, fancy mixed cocktails, vegetable jalfrezi, and eating at Saxon + Parole.
For Charlie, I really wanted to make them a piece that looked like the ocean. I used Yarn Over increases to give this piece a globular-semicircle shape littered with bubble-gaps. It’s also textured, switching between the (reverse) garter stitch and the (reverse) stockinette stitch at uncounted intervals, and some yarn over/knit two rows thrown in, for some movement and an organic feel.
I cast on 6 stitches of Red Heart Boutique Treasure Yarn in Mosaic on my trusty Chiaogoo Interchangeable Red Twist Lace Set and put stitch markers between 2 and 3, and between 4 and 5. I started and ended each row with an increase stitch and for the first chunk, I also made an increase on the inside of each stitch marker. Then I replaced those stitch markers with 15 stitches on either side and started and finished each row with an increase while do an increase on the inside of each stitch marker on the right side only. With two skeins of yarn, the finishing hem was two rows of YO/K2 TOG and elongated rows.
Knitting this and Lauren Victoria’s had a lot in common, I was just having fun and experimenting with mixing up simple row design but with Charlie’s I was also have fun learning shaping with increases instead of shaping with decreases. There is a big idea of “you gotta have a plan when you knit” I feel like that is misplaced. Play around, have fun, lock up your row counter sometimes.