Katia Bolero Shell is Done

I finished the shell I've been making from Katia Bolero yarn. It's a very strange yarn with little chunks of grosgrain-type ribbon every so often with the cotton/acrylic yarn. I really like the texture of the knitted fabric, and the color is very interesting. It's going to look very nice with my border print skirt and the Seafoam Marfy Jacket as well.



I am pleased, and a little relieved that it turned out as well as it did, as I began with the Katia pattern for a tank top with cute buckles on the straps for which I had bought the yarn. About 2/3 of the way up the front, I decided I really couldn't wear the tank comfortably, no matter how cute the pattern was. It just wasn't me, and I should change it to a shell with the shoulders more covered. So, I happened upon a cute pattern, #2 in the Art Issue of VK Knit1. (Thanks Mardel for the heads up on this magazine!) I had dismissed it after looking at the first issue they put out, as it looked very much a scarf/poncho/let's knit rectangles kind of thing, but this issue has several very cute things. This pattern was for a completely different yarn, but at the point I was in my pattern, the stitch count was only one different, so I was able to just follow the instructions as written for the rest, which was quite handy. I did go back to the original pattern for the neck finish, as the VKK1 pattern used a seedstitch band, and no way was I going to do seedstitch with this yarn. My finish is 2 rows of garter stitch, which is very tidy. You can see a side view here.

I was very thrilled yesterday when looking at the August Vogue. I had been thinking that maybe the jacket I'm working on is not actually stylish, although I really like it, and it's very much "me" in style. I turned the page to a story about tunics being the big thing, and there was my jacket! Not exactly, but the YSL belted tunic on the first page of the story is very much the lines and feel of my jacket. What a lovely validation! So, I'm trying harder than ever to figure out what fabric I want to use for it. I want contrast collar/lapel and cuffs but I don't want to completely limit what will coordinate with it. Much thinking and planning involved here. I've been going through my browns, and now I'm beginning to think of greens. A pair of quilting cottons keep popping up on the radar screen, and I may just underline them and use them. The colors would be wonderful. They're dark greens with a touch of gold, and oriental in character. Well, off to the drawing board.