I Finished Something!

I'm a bit off my posting schedule lately.  I have been doing a fair bit of travelling for work lately, and as a result am not getting time in my sewing room, which I like to call L'Atelier as I like to be fancy.   Knitting travels with me everywhere I go, and I've been knitting a few items to wear on an upcoming vacation to Prague and Vienna.  I have finished something - last night in fact, while watching the hockey game in between the second and third period (Go Leafs Go!!).   Anyways...it's not a sewn FO, but rather a knitted FO.  Well, actually...to be fair, it's a knitted and sewn FO. 

I used this pattern:

It's a pattern from King Cole in their Opium yarn, which is a bulky weight, thick and thin, cotton blend yarn (54% Cotton, 42% Premium Acrylic, 4% Polymide). 



I saw it made up at my local yarn store (LYS) on a Knit Night a few months back.  Their sample was a sleeveless version, which you just make the front and back, and not the sleeves!  Being often stuck in a sleeve black hole, this really appealed to me.  Plus, I was ready for something summery. 

The knitting is very straightforward, only a front and back (at least for the sleeveless version).  The instructions for the front drape are easy to follow.  It was a super quick knit, particularly because I used 6.0 mm needles.  The yarn needed a bit of attention to work with, because of the thick and thin nature, but it was still easy to knit.

Here's where the sewing portion comes in - I sewed the front and back together with my sewing machine, using a  narrow seam allowance and a 2.5 wide by 3.0 long zigzag stitch.  This kind of feels like cheating in the handknitting world, but I really hate sewing my hand knit pieces together.  So that moment of feeling guilty passes really quickly.

I can't wait till the warmer weather hits so I can wear this.  I think it will look great layered over a fitted knit cami in various colours (like white, blush pink, hot pink, even cocoa, sage or olive green - AKA Spring in Prague SWAP colours).  I'm envisioning it being dressed up or down depending on the bottoms I wear it with - jeans, flowy shorts, culottes or even a maxi-skirt.  I'm sure it will integrate very well into my Spring in Prague SWAP travel wardrobe.

Up next on my sewing table: