Visiting My Favorite Shop

Jeff was interested in doing a little Sunday drive to Tiverton, RI with me yesterday, so I put on my new tank and wore it out to Sakonnet Purls to look for a new project.

I picked out the Rowan Studio, Issue 15, pattern book with a number of items I like in it designed by Sarah Hatton. The yarn for my first choice pattern was not available and I didn't feel like working out a substitute with Jeff waiting patiently for me, so I opted to knit another tank and picked out some Calmer for it.

I have been wanting to try Calmer for some time, so this will be a nice way to see how the slight stretchiness works for me and then I might try it with a bigger project, with sleeves. The shop had a sample sweater in Calmer on display and it felt amazing.

There are some gorgeous color choices in this yarn, but I especially like this blue.

Happy with my purchases, I went out to find Jeff and we headed on to the reason he went to the knitting store with me in the first place...a visit to Gray's Ice Cream just up the road from Sakonnet Purls!

(The book and yarn were photographed in my herb garden. You can see the sage, etc.)

FO: Terracotta Tank

I made such a stupid mistake on the first row of this knit which I did not discover until I was dividing the front and back at the underarm. Yes, I did not divide the stitches evenly between the front and back. Mentally, I locked onto a number for a different size and proceeded to triple check that, not realizing my error in the first place! Aaarrrgh! I was *not* going to frog all that work. I decided to let the slightly longer side be the front as some of the slack would be taken up by the bust half of me and the back half would be flatter against my shoulder blades.

It seems to have worked out ok. It feels fine on as well. It hasn't been blocked yet, but hardly needs it.

(Excuse the sunlight/shading in this pic, the yarn is just one color throughout.)

My *intentional* changes were to end the eyelet rib at the under bust line and lower the front neckline scoop. Also, I knitted the back of the neck straight, I did not scoop it like the front.

So, I have a new summer top, just in time for the hot weather to arrive!

Saturday Progress

This afternoon, I visited a local fabric store called Sew Nice Fabrics and found a plain cotton material for the lining of the bag I recently made.

And, I finished the body of the tank and picked up the stitches for the neckline, knit it in eyelet rib and got that bound off as you see in this pic (it was a bit dark for my camera).

I still have to pick up the stitches and knit the armhole bands in K3P3 rib. Hopefully I'll be able to get that done tomorrow and have an FO to share!

Progress

Here's a peek at the work I did on the Eyelet Rib Tank on Monday and Tuesday. I love zipping along on circs and I adore this stitch pattern! The cotton-ease is so well behaved too.

In addition to knitting, yesterday I planted out *all* of my veggie seedlings. It was a lot, but I don't have a count yet. I planted peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, zukes, cukes, butternut squash and some marigolds here and there too. It was exhausting work to do all in one day, but I'm glad to have it done. We have some overcast days forecast this week, so the seedlings should have a chance to recover nicely from the transplanting before getting hit with full sun.

Next Summer Project

As I'm nearing the finish of my Fantail Tunic, I'm starting to line up my next project. Yesterday, I ordered Lion Brand cotton ease in a summery shade of terracotta.

I'm planning to make this tank from Creative Knitting (July '09). I will extend the basic ribbing a little lower, so the eyelet ribbing is all below the bust line...I think?

I'm getting antsy to cast on, so it's a good thing I'm waiting on the shipping and therefore have some time to finish the current tunic project.