I finished my lacy summer top, and I deem it a failure. I will not wear it in its current state, so I’ll be frogging it all and starting over. Won’t wear it this season, after all.

The problem is still the gauge difference between the stockinette and the lace part. In my first attempt, the lace was too loose by far. Now it was too tight. Not as badly, this time: the first time the lace came out 20% larger than the stockinette; this time it was 10% smaller. Unfortunately the difference was small enough that I didn’t realize the extent of the problem while I was working on it. I could stretch into shape, and it looked like it would all just even out.

It did not. Those 10% were quite sufficient to throw everything out of whack, and when I tried it on, the problems were glaring.

Because the lace part is basically too small, the whole top is too narrow, so it clings instead of draping. The gauge mismatch makes the whole thing skew – the bottom edge is not straight, and neither is the back of the neck.

Laid out flat like this, you can see how the seam on the right shoulder doesn’t end up at the top – the front part (all stockinette) is noticeably longer than the back part (all lace). The front and back hems also don’t line up at all.

It’s not quite unwearable, but… no, actually, I find it unwearable. Starting over.