FO:: Make Up Your Mind by KnittedBlissJC

Wow, this is my first FO in a long while. :) (still haven't sewn the buttons on the other cardigan, hehe)

Pattern: Make Up Your Mind by KnittedBlissJC (Rav Link)

Needles: US 5 for everything, but used US 4 for the checkerboard because my gauge changes in any type of ribbing (because of the way I purl)

Yarn: Patons Stretch Socks in Black Taffy

Mods: none, except I added in 1 inch garter stitch in the beginning so that it lays flat. I chose garter instead of ribbing since the main body sections are divided by garter ridges.

Start date: August 8, 2011; End date: August 12, 2011!!!!

I came across Julie (of KnittedBliss) 's blog last year when I was planning my wedding.  I wanted to plan a beautiful wedding which consist of four ceremonies (1 court ceremony, 1 "real" ceremony, then 2 more ceremonies 6 months later in Korea and Taiwan). I was mostly concentrating on the "real" ceremony in Laguna Beach since that one was the one with my parents and friends. But since we were having 4 ceremonies, I had to plan the budget accordingly.

Julie's blog has posts about how she planned her wedding under $5,000 (in CAD). That's how I found her blog. Wedding, not knitting. I was really happy that she was also a knitter! teehee.

I've been following her blog ever since and was really happy to see that she started publishing patterns through various media. And now, this! A Knitty pattern. It was gorgeous and it stayed on the top of my Ravelry queue for about 2 months while I was finishing up ALL OF MY 14 UFOs.

The camera wasn't able to capture all the beautiful stitches in the tank, but this really shows how well it fits any type of body. I chose Patons Stretch Socks for the yarn substitute because of the fiber contents. I love this tank so much that I think I'm going to hunt down the original yarn used in the pattern and make a second one. But using Patons Stretch Sock worked out really well too. A fellow knitter who made this about 3 months ago complained that her fingers felt like they were falling apart because of the 3-st cluster. She used a regular 100% cotton yarn. Because of the elastic in this yarn, the cluster section was a breeze and I knitted the whole section under 30 minutes.

Slightly better pictures showing the stitches.

I already got a lot of compliments on the top from my husband, and from my knitting group. My husband even said how I was "showing off" by wearing this to the knitting group meetup. HAHA.