Coachella Top

I've been knitting for years but haven't moved much beyond scarves, hats, and simple things.  Except an occasional pair of socks.  I've been wanting to venture into knitting clothing...sweaters, vests, tops, etc.  The fear of not understanding the pattern and spending lots of time on something that has a high likelihood of looking bad and/or not fitting has kept me from that venture.  Yeah....there was a vest years ago.  It was a simple pattern with v-neck and a cable down the front.  It was made with a double strand of yarn.  It was ok and I think I wore it once or twice.  But, I used yarn that pilled up really bad on the sides after only wearing it that little bit of time.  I made another vest years later that was actually looking great.  But, silly me, I noticed a couple spots along the v-neck ribbing that had holes.  They were small and I could have just stitched them closed from the inside and had a finished vest.  But, no....I felt the need to rip out the ribbing to learn what I did wrong and do it better.  It didn't work as planned and I couldn't get the ribbing knitted on a second time to look right...the count and other stuff kept going wonky.  The vest was a little large anyway and I ended up ripping it out.

I'm trying again to go for it but with baby steps.  I decided to try a tank top.  The one I decided on was a pattern I'd tried before.  It had gone well the first time but I'd made it a size or two too big and ripped it out.  I figured it would be a good pattern to use again since I'd had some success with it before.  I thought that if I got this one right and could actually wear it that it would be a great stepping stone to knitting more clothing.  

I did it!  Here it is...my Coachella top (a free pattern on Ravelry)... 

I love the back of it.

The pattern is basically a tube with a rolled edge on the top, two arm holes, and a little bit of shaping.  It calls for two sizes of needles.  I used size 6 and 8 circulars.  The smaller ones are for the rolled edge on top and for a rolled edge at the bottom.  I had to re-do the bottom of mine because the smaller needles and the twisted stitches used for the rolled edge made it too tight to fit and it didn't have any stretch.  I ripped back and made a 2x2 rib with the larger needles.  It fits fine now.  If I use this pattern again, I'll use the larger needles at the top too.  I think it will lay a little nicer that way.  I made mine in the x-small size.  I'm not sure how it will be if there's any shrinkage but it's fine now.  I normally wear size small tops but the small size of the pattern was too big last time.  I've read notes from other knitters on Ravelry that say it ran large for them too.

I got a little worried half way through that I might not have enough yarn.  I went to find more but couldn't.  Luckily, I was able to finish it with what I had.  There were just a couple yards left.  It took four balls of Sugar N Cream in the "Pebble Beach" colorway.  I love this color way SO much and I'm bummed that I can't find anymore.  It seems to have been a limited color but I sure wish they'd keep making it.  It's one of the prettiest colorways they've made.  At least I got some while it was in the store and enough to make something cool with it.