Tank top in Twilleys Freedom Spirit

Pattern: Tank top from "Knitting" magazine
Yarn: Twilleys Freedom Spirit shade 501 "Soul"
Yardage: 5 balls plus a small amount of a sixth
Needles: Brittany birch 4mm, metal 3.5mm and Denise 4mm circular
Modifications: made the armholes slightly deeper

This was a nice easy knit, despite the pattern in the magazine having various parts missing - mostly near the end - but they were easily worked out. I also got to practice picking up a dropped stitch for the first time from about 5 inches down on the back piece. Not quite fully dropped, more of a hole with stitches above, so I unravelled that stitch back down and picked it back up with a crochet hook. I'm very pleased with my picking up of stitches on this piece for the neck an armholes too. I made sure to follow the same line and not deviate and it seems to have worked. I worked my decreases one stitch in from the end of the row in all cases too so you can see them on the arm curves and neck.

The pattern makes a long-line tank and has shaping to accomodate hips and waist. Not sure that the horizontal stripes are quite the most flattering thing on my figure at the moment, but here's a photo to show that it actually is a very good fit:



Now that I've scared you all, here's some lovely yarn to take your mind off it :-) This is Socrates 4ply from Violet Green, and is for a Shoalwater shawl. After seeing murdo's lovely WIP on the Crafty Threads forum I had to dig the pattern out, then I saw this which is named "Seascape":



I can't wait to get started with this. I should probably attempt to finish Spring Things first though. After some thought I decided I won't be doing the nupps on it though. KSH is not a yarn I would choose to work with again, it feels lovely but is so fine and fluffy I do have trouble handling it. After a few troubles with decreases I decided the last thing I want to do is invite disaster with p5tog! I'd attempt it happily with a different yarn though.

My Blue Sky Alpacas cotton arrived from kpixie yesterday, it took barely 6 days to reach me, and it's beautiful yarn. The picture doesn't do the green justice, it's more olive than it shows, but it does show some of the lustrous softness:



This is of course for Flair, and again I'm itching to get started!

After mandella's excellent review and hearing good things all round, I bought "No Sheep For You" by Amy Singer. I've been reading the first few chapters and have learnt a fair bit already about fibres (now I finally know what modal is!). The patterns I've looked at so far are lovely too.

I also picked up several Colinette pattern books for half price from the ongoing Knit Tin sale. I'd wanted Wayfarer in particular for a while so was happy to find it at a bargainous price.

Some great news this week for a knitblogger friend, Hazel's pattern for a beaded jacket is published in the current issue of Simply Knitting! It's a lovely 6-page spread and a very pretty piece indeed.

I'd also like to mention Sunflower Swifts and Sublime Spindles who now have a blog to showcase their wares. I bought my swift from them earlier this year and am very pleased with it, it's a beautiful piece of work.

Finally a mention to the lovely Piglottie who has an ongoing sale of her excellent hand-made cards, in aid of a friend's charitable trek. Please pop over and take a look!