Sorry it's been so long between blogs. I was doing a lot of projects as gifts and I didn't want their lucky (or so I hope) recipients to run across this blog and see what I was making them. This next project is for myself, so I can blog all I want about it.
I found the pattern for this project here. It is a sleeveless top with Bernat brand bamboo yarn. Yes, bamboo. No, it's not wooden or in the form of long shoots. It's actually very soft and silky. It's a bulky-grade yarn and the pattern calls for size 10 (6 mm) needles. Since I already had that size, it was one less thing I had to buy. Finding six skeins of this stuff in the same dye lot was a challenge, but I managed to scare up six of the light pink "Lotus" color. It wasn't my first choice --that would have been the darker pink "Rosehip" color--but it's still a very pretty shade. If you mix dye lots within a project, you might get some unevenness in the color and that would look weird.
So, I looked on Ravelry to see if anyone else had tried this pattern and what I found out might save me from a less-than-desirable result. Most of the knitters who attempted to make this top found that it was too short and ended up having to add a couple of inches. Also, there were comments about it being boxy or curling up too much on the ends. The curling, fortunately has a relatively easy fix: change the pattern to rib for the bottom 2-4 inches. Since I will be lengthening the piece, I'll do those additional inches in rib. They may also be in a different color, seeing that I'm not sure there are any more of that dye lot available. I'm thinking of going with a skein of yellow to go with the pink. Blue and green might be too overpowering for that shade of pink, but the yellow, as long as it's not too bright, could complement it nicely. If not yellow, then maybe the darker shade of pink as an accent color.
The "boxiness" might be a little more challenging to fix. I chose this pattern for its simplicity because this is my first foray into making clothing and I didn't want it to be super-complicated and easy to screw up. However, I want it to be flattering and something I actually want to wear. I'll have to do some more research on shaping and how I can do it without making the pattern too complex.
