Orange sherbert - a tank top WIP

I won a lovely grand prize of $75 coupon at a not-quite-local LYS (about 250 miles away); but close enough to justify a destination change for our Spring Break this last spring. Such a GREAT gift from StevenBe (in Minneapolis, MN).

I picked up lots of lovely yarns, and we don't really need to tell my new husband how much OVER the prize I spent, now do we?

Since I'm stuck flat on my back and unable to knit for a bit, I figure maybe I could spend a little time resurrecting my blog and posting some progress pictures.

First the swatch & yarn:

I picked up four skeins each of white & orange Be Sweet Bamboo, very soft, lovely drape and while a little bit splitty, still a very nice yarn.

My 'swatch' was an attempt at this tank that I started back in March, before I realized that the needles I had chosen was working great for seed stitch (the bottom edge), but was wrong for the stockinette portion. I ended up frogging this attempt and started with a needle, one size smaller, this last May.

I'm making the pattern up as I go, with an intent to add bars very similar to this pattern:  Block Theory; but using that color-work idea and some modifications from this pattern: Soliel; just substituting seed stitch for the bottom edge instead of lace (since the colorwork is intended to be the 'point' and the lace would only distract and make it too busy. I'm also knitting this flat, where there will be one side seamed in order to simplify the use of intarsia to build in the colorwork blocks.

Only, ha! With the needle size down one size. And even after re-working and re-verifying my guage swatch (lying gauge swatch)... I got into trouble at the mid-way point.

Bet you can't see the issue, can you? Neither did I for the longest time... happily knitting away and adding blocks of color on a whim.

Yeah, it's not WIDE enough for this not-quite plus sized person.

Hmmm... I've already frogged this project once. Because it was going to be too big and the knitting too loose. Now, the knitting is fine, but the guage is too small, sigh.

Got my thinking cap on and decided to add another block of color, this time up the 'seam' side, and in seed stitch... not sure why, maybe to make it look more like an intentional design element as opposed to an oops, did she mess up cover up (?)...

Anyway, a couple of inches in (was planning on continuing it until I matched the height of the other work, then continuing to work flat until I needed to start armhole decreases.

(hard to tell from this picture, it's a bit pinkish, but it's the same delightful orange as the bars in the picture above which is more true-to-color)


Then I got a flare up and repetitive activities causes problems. Now it's sitting in my beautiful project bag, around the corner from where I lay so I'm not too sad about not getting to work on it right now.