Spring has Sprung

It hasn't, actually, though it is very warm, but these colours are so soft and beautiful that it felt like spring!  I realised towards the end of last week that I had run out of money and couldn't buy the Debbie Bliss Prima on sale until after the weekend.  But how long would the special offer last?  So I wrote to Black Sheep and got a lovely letter from their customer service lady, Maria.  Providing I realised this was just a one-off, I could buy the Prima over the phone and she would put the sale through manually.  What wonderful kindness!  I was so overjoyed that I bought twenty balls.  In trying to work out how many balls I needed for more skinny rib tops, I weighed the top I'd made and calculated 6 balls, but bought 7 (just in case.)  I've bought enough for three tops:  one in yellow, one in lavender and one that will be avocado, cream and other stripes (depending what's left.)
Something gorgeous for next Spring!

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!