Is it a dress?  Is it a tunic?  Whatever it is, I love this unique little number designed by Heather Dixon.  Knitted in Blue Sky Alapacas Sport Weight, I chose a vivid orange meant to represent the color of a beautiful sunset as my plan was to have this completed by late summer.  You know, like the setting sun of a lovely summer’s past.

However, due to my own distractions, a bit of difficulty getting the gauge, and somehow getting confused on the back “spine”, it took much longer to knit than expected.  So, I do suppose I can think of it more as an Early Fall top to give homage to the harvest season of the pumpkin and other such seasonal gords.  I do love its color and it is totally squishy soft as alpaca is and fits perfectly.  However, I am learning that I am not totally in love with alpaca, I don’t think, as I tend to prefer fabric, knitted or otherwise, that has more body and heft to it.

Wanting a nice “tight weave”, as my hubby calls it, I purposely followed a larger size and  used smaller needles than what was recommended and that gave me more stitches to the inch and the fabric you see here.   I did not notice the line work that details the front of the torso until I was upon it and to me, it is that line that shows off the shape of the garment so nicely.  I am a repeat offender when it comes to short puffy sleeves, I just can’t get enough of them, and the juxtaposition of those sweet sleeves against the sexy back is the delight in this project for me.

The spine is a pattern of knitting and slipping stitches.  Quite frankly, I have never seen this technique before and does make for a tighter supportive back in which to mount the holes or what I call white space.  The holes are just bind offs with cast ons on the next row or round, in this case.  What I did not like was the unfinished look of the armhole as the sleeves are finished off without attaching back to the body of the garment.  I thought that really odd however, I really did like the way the sleeves looked without that attachment.  And, not only did the armholes look unfinished to me, they were also too large.  So, I picked up stitches around the armhole and knitted a gusset about 1/2 inch in depth using the k1p1 stitch that was used around the neckline and other edges to make it look like it was meant to be there, and then sewed that gusset up to the raglan seams of the sleeves.  Perfect.  Also, when the garment was done, I felt the entire neckline was stretching and slipping so I threaded elastic thread all the way around the neckline, put the garment on, and secured that elastic to my comfort.   Again, perfect.

I do think that successful knitters have an arsenal of “fix-up” strategies when things do not appear as you want them in the end game.  This minor fussing along with the creative genius of the designer was the key for this garment to be successful.

The photo shoot was taken in our backyard where we are boasting beautiful new landscaping that offers a host of hemlocks, dogwood, and lilacs.

Oh, wait!  A pic without sunglasses!

Happy Fall, Everyone!