Tulipa 'Oxford'

The wonderful world of knitting. It has plenty of surprises. Good surprises, like how your yarns works up beautifully soft, and bad surprises, like your tension changes leaving you with an unwearable mess. Yes... this project had it all. This is the Tulip Top from Stitch 'n Bitch Superstar Knitting which I bought mainly for this top  although it is full of treasures. And It's knit in Debbie Bliss Eco Aran which is Organic, Fair Trade, and comes in a luscious shade of red.

A second later I trip up

I cast on the yarn and I started knitting. I knit through weeks of sleepless nights. I knit through a train journey, through my brother's cricket match, at my Nan's house waiting for a curry to arrive, I knit on the return journey. I knit and I knit and I knit. I knit while my Denise cable broke and I knit on a far too small needle. I bought a new needle and carried on knitting. Transferring stitches over in the centre of Manchester with my rucksack, which is almost as big as I am, on my back. And then the end was in sight. I separated the front and the back and for the first time and saw just how big it was. I swore.

Check out the Hello Kitty shoes. I'm the maturyiest 

Yes I swatched. I did. Honest. I swatched and my tension was spot on. I think perhaps that I may have been knitting tighter because I knew the numbers on the ball band where different from what I wanted. The top didn't match. Luckily I was home when I figured this out. And so was Stephen. We put our heads together, his for the maths skill mine mainly for whining, and found that if I knit the second smallest size it would come out just about right. So I knit and two weeks later...

Look, it was bright out okay

Off the needles it came. I applied the i-cord and all was right with the world. I love the way the cotton knits up. It's very loosely plyed so you have to watch for splitting but with smooth needles and loose enough stitches I didn't have a problem. You may want to watch out if you are a tight knitter though. Knit up it has a lovely sheen and softness and the fact that it matches my bright red tights tickles me. My one style note, insomuch as I have any style at all, is that a longline bra looks so much better under this. That is why I posted the squinty picture, the one without the longline. Perhaps it's the more casual drape of the knit fabric needing a more sculptural bra. Whatever, I'm now officially a longline convert. Gertie was right.