After I got bored with the hat...

I decided I was going to treat myself and this is stash reduction - knitting a top for myself uses up more wool than a sock. So here's the first of what I hope will be a number of nice new tops for yours truly. It's "Tulip" (Rowan 41) in the lovely, lovely "Rowan Damask - Basalt". It's so soft and silky. Not really squeezable on the ball as there's a tube of card in the middle, but the reward is in the knitting up.



Above, is the start of the back. After six rows of stocking stitch, it asks you (for the next row) to knit six, then rotate the left needle at 360 degrees. Not being the brightest bunny on the block it took me some time to work this out... did 'rotate' mean to do something weird and cable-like with the stitch?

So I had a look at the picture and noticed the lovely trim on "Tulip". Rotating the needle creates a simple but effective ruffle effect. I was delighted and waxed lyrical to the BF about the joys of knitting - how such a simple technique can result in a really impressive (to me at any rate) finish.

He got bored and went to play computer games.



I continued knitting, whilst watching "Men in Black 2", again... and this (above) is where I got to after two hours. I love the way the colours merge and blend, and that there's some purple mixed in with the blues - simple things... I think this will knit up quite fast - not only because I'm looking forward to having a new top.