Cumulus Blouse - Turquoise Ver.
August 12, 2025
Project recap
- Ravelry: PurringYarn’s Cumulus Blouse - Turquoise Ver.
- Time spent: 48 hours
- Yarn: Filcolana Tilia (Playa)
- Needle: US 7/4.5mm
- Gauge: 18 sts/4''
- Duration:-
- Pattern: Cumulus Blouse
- Designer: PetiteKnit
Yarn planning
I ordered the yarn from Lil Weasel in Paris and my friend picked up for me from Paris to Canada. When buying the yarn, I thought the turquoise colour is a bit too bright to my liking so I also purchased the same yarn in grey colour and planned to hold them together to reduce saturation. However, when I got to see the actual yarn, I found the grey is too greyish and I had a feeling this won’t work. I knitted a swatch to test my colour combination - with or without the grey - and it proved my thoughts. The turquoise and grey colour blended with subtle shimmering, it’s beautiful but not suitable for my skin tone. After swatching I decided only use the turquoise yarn by holding two strands together.
Size and modifications
About the size: This is my first PetiteKnit project. I’ve heard many people complained about PetiteKnit’s lack of size inclusiveness so I always have this impression that her pattern size would be on the smaller size. It turned out to be not true and this pattern does not have my size(XXXS-XXS). I found that’s really odd especially because of the name particularity specify “petite” but it didn’t actually offer size for real petite people like me. Fortunately, my gauge is smaller than the pattern, so I will go up a size instead, which would be the smallest size(XS) provided in the written pattern.
I don’t know if I have enough yarn, so the plan is once I finish the 1st skein, I’ll weigh how much wool is used and start knitting the sleeves first before the lower body. This way I can estimate the yarn usage and plan ahead in case I don’t have enough yarn. Ideally I can use up all yarn. If they are not enough, then I will knit a crop version or 3/4 sleeves.
I knitted appx. 7’’ for the left sleeve, but after trying it on, I felt it didn’t have enough positive ease to my liking so I unravelled it to the point where it’s 60 sts with appx. 5.3’’ width (measured flat), and decided not to decrease, unlike the pattern suggested. I think I’ll knit the same way as my Ranunculus Sweater by adapting the diagonal cuff and ending with an i-cord bind off.
For the left sleeve, I finished it with the diagonal cuff from Ranunculus Sweater per size 8’s instruction. For the last 2 row (a plain knit following decrease round), I used US 6 needle as the small needle as US 5 turned out to be too tight for the cuff. Looks good!
The i-cord neck edge took me 2nd attempt to finish. The first try was too tight, probably because I picked up 92 sts. I felt the collar looked a bit off so I frogged the i-cord and re-pick 108 sts instead, with 36 on each side of the V neck and another 36 on the back.
Finished the right sleeves in 2 days. I did not count the row while I was working the left sleeves but I left markers at the underarm and the place before diagonal cuff shaping, so I can count the row from start to end row, which is 84 rounds before the short row shaping.
How I win the yarn chicken
- Yarn left: 16g while I only have the body left. I want to use up this yarn so I need to calculate carefully. The following is a lot of math:
- Based on my previous record, 172 sts x 13 rnd = 7g yarn. The row gauge is appx. 8 rnd = 1’'.
- Calculate the i-cord bind-off: because it’s 4sts i-cord so I think its yardage is appx. 4 times a regular round. Hence 13/7g x 4 = 7.42g for bind-off. The remaining yarn for body is 16-7.42=8.58g
- So the available round for body is 13*8.58/7 = 15.93 rnd, so almost 2’’. Well….Shall I take the risk and knit 16 rnd?
- Yarn left: less than 1g? I cannot weight it on my kitchen scale which only measures to 1 gram precision
- I took the risk and knit 16 rounds, it turned out perfect - only very little yarn left.
- Blocking and drying. The pre-blocking blouse is quite fitted on me with a small amount of positive ease, so I didn’t stretch it too much on the blocking mat.
Project timeline
- – Yarn arrived (from Paris)! Knitted a swatch to test the colour combination.
- – Cast on. Used one skein of yarn.
- – Finish V neck. Starting the body and sleeves.
- – Finish the sleeves. Starting the body and sleeves.
- – Bind off and block.
