patience

Glass of wine enjoyed. Coquette Lace Tube Top finished.

After such an angsty day, I was pretty surprised to finish and LOVE my Coquette top. With a glass of wine next to me I picked up the project for what felt like the 156th time, and quietly pulled out two inches of ribbing. Then I patiently put all the stitches back on my needles and proceeded to bind off loosely. The ends were woven in and that was it. And as soon as I tried it on, it was like a different garment than the day before.

My one big complaint with the pattern is that I struggled with the lace panel and restarted it 4 times before I figured out the mistake. And just as I did, I realized that the corrections might be on the internet and sure enough they were. Now, it was silly of me to figure out this so late in the game, but honestly - can I not trust the book to be RIGHT? I'm not the most confident knitter, so I was convinced that I kept screwing up the lace instructions, and frankly I don't know how I managed to hold out so long without throwing the whole mess right across the room. But in the end the internet confirmed my suspicions and the only other problem was that I knit it much longer than needed. For that I take all the blame.

The yarn was great - Pima Tencel from Fable. Cascade has a similar yarn and at Romni it was a whole $2 cheaper per ball, but the colour palette just wasn't the same. As soon as I saw this plum-based taupe I figured it was worth the extra expense (and I only needed 4 balls, so it wasn't a terrible cost). And really, the colour is a big reason why I love the finished thing...even if I am a pasty shade of white myself. The addition of the polka-dotted ribbon is also a detail I really like. Truthfully I am addicted to black and white polka-dots, you just can't go wrong with them. And the final mention is that I modified the panel by only doing 4 repeats instead of 5. I had a feeling this would "petite" it a bit, and I think I was right.

Phew. Am I ever glad that silly old angst passed. Next up - finding patience to finish my mushroom skirt. It's pretty close to the being thrown across the room too, but I think I'll give it another go. With wine, of course.