FO: Summertime tunic
OK, it's time to get some of these FOs blogged before the new year. First up is my modified version of the Summertime Tunic.
Pattern: Summertime tunic from Interweave Knits Summer 2007 (Rav link)
Yarn: Classic Elite Premiere, colorway 5295, 50/50 cotton/Tencel, 108 yds/50 gr, every single inch of 5 skeins were used (size 37.5 with modifications)
Needles: US 6/4.0 mm
Start/finish: 3/2/08-9/22/08 How embarrassing is that? 6+ months! Phbbbt.
Comments/modifications: The first thing to say is that I absolutely love this yarn. I don't usually really like knitting with cotton, but the 50% Tencel in there makes all the difference in the world. It knits up fluid and drapey, and in the wearing doesn't stretch out quite as quickly as 100% cotton would. Gorgeous stuff.
I did a few mods on this pattern. To wit: 1) I only had about 500 yds of the yarn, so I started at the top and knit down. Then 2) instead of doing the ribbing and continuing down past that as in the magazine photos, I pulled a lacey ribbing pattern out of BW Vol 2 and used that as edging.3) I bought some ribbon to use for the straps and then when I got to that point, couldn't find it, so I worked a 3 st I-cord with the last remaining scraps of yarn and used that instead. That's it. I lucked out on the fit, and after a couple of wearings, most of the stretching was width-wise not length-wise, so all's well.
Thankfully I finally got all the finishing done before "winter" arrived. I've worn this a couple of times and gotten compliments on it, which definitely qualifies as a success.