Egyptian Preview....

This is what I plan to wear in Egypt. I finished it today and love it! I've knit the pattern once before, but didn't measure properly and it ended up too short, so I frogged it and returned the yarn to my stash. I decided to knit it out of silk this time. I thought the stretch of silk (yarn is Alchemy Silk Purse) would be perfect for this top and I was right.

Pattern is the Krista Tee from a book called Knitting Lingerie Style (you can also buy a kit or just the pattern from the website). I made several minor modifications. I converted it to a seamless top, but had to figure out the lace so that it would work. I ended up casting on 72 stitches (I knit the smallest size) and then placed the lace so that it blended into the rest of the top properly. I compensated for the additional stitches during armhole shaping by reducing a stitch on each row, rather than every RS row until I had the correct number of stitches. I also chose to do my waist shaping by reducing/increasing stitches rather than changing needle sizes AND I did my sleeves as short rows, attached right to the garment. I had no seaming at all... just a few ends to weave in. Oh, and I added 2 inches to the body, shortened the armholes by one inch (to compensate for the stretch of silk, overall gain was one inch) and probably gained another 1-2 inches of length when the silk was washed.

I'm sure there will be better pictures to come, but you'll have to look for them in the pictures I post from Egypt... Only 5 more days...

Here are a few pictures of Eli helping me make an Apple Crisp this week.... My cousin gave me two big boxes of apples from her orchard and we've been trying to use them up.