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Sunday, 17 June 2012

At last..!

At last I have something to post! Despite best intentions little has happened recently to post about, but I have finally got round to a couple more projects, and have finished one!  The finished product is the "startime dressy top" from A Stitch in Time Volume 2 - and I love it!

After having a trip to the Texere Mill in Bradford (address in the book) and discovering a knitter's paradise (a bit overwhelming if you don't know what you are looking for though !), I picked up the required two cones of Thai Silk -n £11 per cone so the top came in at a very reasonable £22

The instructions were a dream to follow - even for a fairly basic knitter like me - there is a crown pattern (the neck yoke) which is a 14 row pattern followed by the body pattern which is a simple 6 round row.  The top is knit in one piece from the neck down - not something I had done before but wasn't as scary as it sounded.  The only tricky bit, for me, was the division of the work for the sleeves which took a little bit of practice - but worked out great in the end.

The top can be worn on or off the shoulder - I dropped half a needle size for the crown pattern to bring the neckline in slightly as I didn't want it too wide and feel like it was falling off my shoulders all the time - worked a treat.  Here is what the crown pattern looks like:
The edges do curl slightly, but I like the softness this gives which seems to work well with the nubbly silk. 

Rubbish photo! I'm not asleep honest!
love the back! could just do with some sunshine!!!
I think that the full skirt in the book's styling really looks great with this top (better that my jeans anyway!) so I think I will have to look out for a similar pattern and get on with making a skirt to wear with this, perhaps with a wide belt...! Don't you just love having lots on the wish list even if it takes ages to get round to it.