Freedom Spirit Tunic

As promised, this is the tunic I’m knitting for mum!  When I bought this pattern, I made the same mistake you probably are right now – ooo, it’s cabled!  But no, that’s not cabling, it’s actually unblocked lace!  Lesson learned – read the pattern before paying for it, or you really will pay for it later!

The yarn is Freedom Spirit by Twilleys, and is 100% wool in a colour which is a loosely spun mix of caramel, brown and red plies that  stripes subtly over a few rows.  I had to cut a small amount out because of a rather unattractive slub, but that didn’t seem to make a difference to the stripe.  It was actually discontinued when we bought it, and on sale at half price – absolute bargain!

So far I’ve done 42 rows of rib and 48 rows of pattern, which is about twelve inches, really slow going for over a fortnights worth of work!  There’s another sixteen inches worth before I even start the shoulder shaping (I don’t think there’s any sleeve shaping, but I might be wrong – at least I hope I am because sewing it together is going to be a nightmare!) which is going to be a bit of a faff – I’m intending to butcher the pattern a bit so I can use a three-needle bind-off for the shoulder seem, I always think that looks a lot neater and much more solid than I can manage with a yarn needle!