Not A Shawl

Here is a top that I finished a couple of days before MAFA (middle of July), and I am proud to say that it was entirely from the stash! I don't really remember where I got the yarn, maybe at a shop out in Oregon that was going out of business, a couple of years ago. It is sportweight, 50%cotton, 50% acrylic, so therefore is machine washable which is great for summer things. Even the pattern was a stash pattern (though I did modify it a little) intended for Reynolds Tucson. Unfortunately, I left the pattern in an airplane seat pocket, so I won't be making the version with the short sleeves, LOL. I modified the rib pattern at the bottom to make it non-symmetrical, and the armhole and neck ribbings a little as well. Even if I hadn't intended to modify the arm and neck ribbings, I guess I would have because by then I didn't have the pattern anymore!

Here's a little closer detail, the ribbing is 2-2-6-6, and because it is cotton it only pulls in some, which I like. The colors are pretty accurate - pink, gray, and turquoise, and they didn't really pool at all but did do a tiny bit of zig-zagging here and there. This took about 650 yards of the sportweight.

You may think the armholes look a little small, this was done on purpose as I hate cotton tops whose arms sag during the day, and you end up with an inch or two of bra showing under your arms. I now make all sleeveless tops with a shorter arm opening, to compensate, and of course a tight crocheted crab stitch or picked-up edging (as on this top) helps as well.

I was trying to photograph this top, and it looked terrible on every surface I tried. Then I thought of my dress from, lonely up in the sewing room since I don't do seamstressing (or much sewing at all) anymore. Voila - a much better picture, I'll have to do this more often in the future.

Plugging away on Birch in my free time, am now on the 3rd (and last) ball of yarn, so it may get finished this week. Then I am going to try to attack some UFOs and some spinning, provided the AC is working well.