Firstly I would like to say thank you to all of you who commented or emailed giving me hints and tips on how to avoid the uneven stitching. I will reply to you all, but I don't know how at the moment and am waiting for the software people to let me know what to do.
Moving on, I finished the little top yesterday evening and it looked like a limp rag. I meant to take a photo and completely forgot. However, I'm sure you will know what I meant by that. This morning, I soaked the top in tepid water with some wool wash - I use Eucalan which is excellent for delicates and as an added bonus is no rinse - perfect for the lazy. It had a soak for about 30 minutes, mostly because I became distracted into riveting household tasks, putting washing away, cooking lunch and making sure Ian had something useful to do at all times. After soaking, it was rolled in a towel and gently squeezed to remove the excess water. Then blocking. I bought these 'blocking boards' or 'hopscotch' squares from B&Q a couple of years ago and very useful they are. It was then pinned out using dressmaking marking pins because guess what? I couldn't find the 3 packs of KnitPro T Pins that I own. They are by far the best for blocking, but anyway, they are somewhere safe, probably laughing at me.
This is the outcome so far. You can still see the ridge a bit and definitely the marks where the increases took place. I looked at all the finished projects on Ravelry for this pattern and the increase marks on most projects were quite noticeable. However, the unevenness of the top bit, where I picked up the stitches on one sleeve with a large circular to do magic loop and then changed my mind, and some general poor tension in knitting is showing. Maybe when it dries it might even out a bit more, but frankly I'm not hopeful. Still, Isobel isn't a position to complain and frankly nor is her mother, so I'm not too worried about the general state of it.
So, I did enjoy knitting this, but I think a wool might be better. I'm going to get straight onto it. What about the Krea Deluxe Cotton? I liked the feel of it and it knitted well., especially when you take into account I'd unpicked this cotton at least three or four times when knitting a really lacy cardigan during our epic 'Game of Thrones' marathon watch last summer. You can't do both and I used to knit really fast when the gory bits came on - every 3 seconds. The top took almost 2 balls so very good really. I had unpicked both of the balls several times, I was determined not to give up. So, to sum up, I like the pattern and will try it again using something more forgiving of increases etc and I like the cotton and will use it again on something more easy going. I will add a photo of the completely finished article.
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