Josephine Top

I finally finished my Josephine Top from the Summer 2007 Interweave Knits in Knit Picks ShineSport (color: Willow) last night. I love how it turned out! I had to rip out the part of above the lace twice halfway through it because I kept messing up on the decreases. I eventually wrote down each line of the pattern for the front. I did each front side separately instead of at the same time as the pattern suggests because it was easier for me. I made less mistakes.

I had started on this last summer while I was still in Texas as a summer/fall top. But once I moved here to Seattle I put it down to knit winter items. Now that it is supposed to be summer soon, I figured it would be a good time to start knitting on it again. However, I think I'm going to have to wear it under a cardigan for awhile until the summer they keep promising that is coming shows up. Luckily, I'm leaving for California for a couple of days on business and will actually get to see the sun! And we are staying on the beach in Ventura too! :)

I had hoped that I might have time to hit a yarn store in Ventura but I just don't think the agenda they have set up for our quarterly meeting will allow it. I have to do a presentation on Monday. Hmmmm.... Should Josephine come with me?

I really liked the details on this top. The lace part at the bottom was a simple repeat once I got it. I did it in the round because I really dislike seaming. But I had to change to knitting front sides and back separately once I realized I couldn't keep up with all the different things that were happening on each row.

The cap sleeves are done in Moss Stitch to match the lace portion. I added this to the neckline which I think made it come all together better.

I actually finished the knitting part on Saturday but I still had the cord to do. The pattern calls for a 300 stitch cast on followed by a row of binding off. I did this on Snatchel and didn't like how it turned out. So I tried it with a long-tail cast-on vs. a knit on cast-on and a sewn bind-off vs. a traditional bind-off. It gave it a much more finished looked but took several hours to do.

I could have worked on it at the movies with Ialiuxh and Charity yesterday when we went to see Narnia (finally!). They both can knit in the darkness of the theater but I didn't want to attempt sewing in the dark. Oh well, I enjoyed the movie. If you saw the first one I think you won't be disappointed by the second one, although I liked the first one better. No knitting to speak of in the movie although we did think the baby's christening gown and top with its lace look could almost have been knit but I think it was fabric.

Now that I'm finished with Josephine, I'm ready to move onto another summer top using the yarn I got at Yarnia (which rhymes with Narnia, ha!) in Portland in April when I was down there for classes with Annie Modesitt. I have about a million (or at least 10) different tanks/camisole type tops in my queue on Ravelry to pick from. Plus I just picked up a couple more Japanese knitting magazines last week. So I should be able to pick out something, right!?!

I'm going to take Los Monos Locos with me on the plane to knit. It requires some counting and concentration so let's hope I don't mess it up or have my knitting needles confiscated.!