And yet another one!

I thought I had found all my UFOs but no I've found another one. This shirt was the first thing I made on my (then) new Brother BC2500. This would be about two years ago. I put the shirt together and was disappointed when the neckline was so small. It was exactly as the pattern predicted but it was too close for me. So I threw it in the back of the craft cupboard and didn't think of it again until the clean out  last week. I had seen the pattern reviewed in Pattern Review and a number of reviews made mention of the same thing. AND that they had done something about it. I felt ashamed that I hadn't done the same but also inspired to make it the way I want it. I took some of my tops that I like the neck line of and compared them. I marked out where I thought I would like it better. I spent a bit of time on this. There is something about taking a pair of scissors to something that you have made that is pretty nerve-wracking. And then I cut out the neck line. A bit at the back. A little bit more at the sides and more at the front. The original was bound with bias made from the fabric, which of course had long since disappeared from my stash. Luckily I had some plain white bias binding lying around. So I cut a narrow seam allowance and attached the bias. Just like here. I had already made the button holes and sewn on the buttons so I had to move the top one down about 3/4". This had made them slightly irregular but I'm happy with the result. Something wearable!

New neckline - with white bias binding

Button detail on the back

Stash busting and keeping warm

A little while ago I found some lovely green tweed wool and snapped up four balls. I was thinking it would make a nice scarf. One minor problem... Don't need another scarf. Then I found a lovely cowl pattern here. And I am yet to make myself a cowl. I really like the way that the buttons were used as a design feature and for practicality. When I connected the wool with the pattern I realised that the knitted texture wouldn't show up with the variegations in the wool. So I decided to use plain stockingette. But I liked the moss stitch ends so kept that. The great thing about patterns like this is that they're FAST! I knitted this up in one night. Spent a bit of time looking for some suitable buttons and found some made from coconut. Here is the finished product. More information about this on ravelry here.