Teeny tiny photo!

I tried to take a photo of myself using my webcam.....harharharhar!  Look how SMALL it is!!!  Can't figure out why.  I'll get my daughter to take a better picture of me later.  Needless to say, I LOVE my new top.  For once I've actually made something nice out of something awful!  Hooray!

Could this be any smaller?
The photo, not the top!!

Finished Vest

I finished my ribbed vest just in time for the heatwave except, of course, it's too hot to wear it! I'm probably the only person in England who doesn't like the hot weather....when people say, "oooh, summer has started at last," I smile weakly, as if in agreement, but actually I'm thinking, "aaaaargh, bring on the rain."  Yes, I know the rain has been awful for some:  there have been floods and endless weeks of grey drizzle.  But I live in London and we didn't get THAT much rain.  No floods, just nice bouts of rain that made everything lush and meant I had to wear a cardi most days.  I just LOVE cardi weather.  Also, when it rains in London, it washes the air and sidewalks clean, and God knows, they could do with a scrub!  Rain means a clean city, it means the air is soft and clear, it means the drunken zombies who litter the sidewalks don't come out of their holes and it means the tiny squares and parks aren't lined with near-naked and faintly revolting flesh.

Like I said, bring on the rain!

And when it comes back, I'll have a chance to wear my new top:

It looks a bit crumpled up here but believe me, when I'm wearing it, it looks fantastic!  Just needs to be a bit longer....

It has the simplest edging:  pick up stitches along the edge, knit a row, cast off.  Gives it nice definition.

Above is the original Debbie Bliss pattern, knitted in Amalfi.  I followed it exactly, except ribbed it.  I also didn't do an edging around the arms as they came out well-defined, but I think I would if I knitted it in stocking stitch.  I used Debbie Bliss Prima which seems to have an identical tension, so there was no weird tension maths to do (which I can't do anyway.)  I got this pattern free from the Debbie Bliss website but it seems they change them quite often.  I think the Amalfi book is still available, though.

The ONLY thing that went wrong is that I would have liked it longer.  But I like this sort of top so when I knit it again, will add a good four inches/10cm to the length.  I have no waist so anything that sits too close to it makes me look, well, waistless!  A longer length makes me looks slimmer.  Naturally!

I must say I'm really glad I've got this yarn out my hair!  

On the needles (6)

Debbie Bliss Prima

I feel as if I've been knitting my summer rib top forever.  Not that I'm going to need it for a while....it's been quite chilly!  (Just how I like summer actually:  cool skies and sprinkly rain.....lovely!)  No doubt summer will hit us in full force in September.  I'm sure I'll be finished by then!

The hardest part has been doing the increases up the sides.  Despite hunting about on-line for advice, it seems there is no magical way to make neat increases when you're doing a rib.  Unless, of course, you're actually following a pattern and not making it up as you go along!  The back looks appalling so I tried to do the increases on the front much closer to the edge in the hope that when I sew it up, the mess will be hidden away.
In the meantime, I discovered that DECREASING in rib looks better on the wrong side!
(The pattern is taken from the Debbie Bliss Amalfi book - the pattern was free at some point.  It seems they don't keep free patterns on their website.  There's only one free pattern at any one time!)

This is the "wrong" side but it's so neat, I'm going to use this as the right side!

Not so neat on the "right" side!