10.7.08

The Bikini Experiment - Analysis of the Data

bikini experiment bandBikini Top - First Go

My bikini top was completely finished. This shot shows the band being picked up. It was the perfect width. I knitted my casing, but when I drew the elastic through it, a stitch got snagged on the interior, requiring me to reknit. No worries there, because 6-8 rows go by so fast. I triumphantly tried on my creation, and immediately decided to reknit the whole top smaller, except for the total band length. That would have to stay the same.



If you are aware of this pattern, you can see that the sizing up and down results in the band length going up and down with it. So to solve around this, I made a spreadsheet. Excel has to be the best program in the world for doing knitting calculations. Decide on your formula and fill series for size options, do calculations for pattern repeats, and generally save yourself a lot of paper.

To resize this pattern, I set up my spreadsheet like this:









Row ## vertical st# side sttotal stitches
1=[# vertical st] -(rounddown[Row #]/4)=roundup([# vertical st]/2)=[# vertical st] + [# side st]
********


Then, I filled series down for about 30 rows. Since I knew how many stitches I wanted to have on my needle when you make the turn in the cup, I was able to select from the rows that provided the desired number of stitches. Note that some of these Excel terms might be spelled wrong, but Excel will give you the correct spelling if you search in the help menu. These are spelled to give you the understanding of what they do. Excel is powerful. Use it.

I just finished the second cup last night at D&D. I'm picking up the stitches for the band this weekend, and hope to have it finished by Monday.

The bottom is finished, including the elastic in the casing. I'm not satisfied with the shaping in the front, so I might rip that portion and reknit.

2 comments:

Jenna said...

your face is classic when the top isn't quite right...

hairycarrot said...

No no. I always look like that. It's my approach to life.

hairycarrot. Get yours at bighugelabs.com/flickr