Frustration, thy name is Fiori

First off, let me say that the Fiori Pullover is a well-written pattern. It was a challenging project, but one that didn't make me want to slam my head in a door. That being said, I suppose I should really confess that poor fiber choice and my figure caused all the problems.

For my first attempt, I used a lovely reclaimed silk-and-mohair yarn in a soothing periwinkle blue. However, as a relatively uninitiated ... um ... yarn chooser, this was the wrong choice.

My apologies for the tremendous amount of bustage in this shot. I've included it for science. I'll explain in a second.

And in this view from the back, you can see ... well, I was going to say "too much fabric," but now, it doesn't look too bad.

See that patterned bit circling my waist? Yeah, that's supposed to be right below my bust -- an empire waist. (What do you think? Think it looks OK where it is? I just don't know.)

Was I sleeping while I knit this thing? No, it's just that mohair/silk is rather heavy and stretched as I worked. Had I been more experienced, I would have known that this fabric would be heavy and would have taken steps to keep the vertical growth under control.

So, not to be cowed into giving up, I tried Fiori again, this time with a cotton blend (again, reclaimed yarn -- hey, at $3.75/sweater at my Goodwill, you can't beat that kind of deal with a stick).

So far so good...

Not bad...

Wonderful! The band is right where it's supposed to be, the length is great, and the finishing will cover up some of that ample flesh (again, my apologies for the Busty McBusterson show).

[facepalm]

*Le sigh*

Where do I start? First off, because the front and back shoulders didn't have the same number of stitches (my fault, not the designer's), I had to, um, get a little imaginative with the back of the neck. That pulled the front up, throwing the front out of whack. It's supposed to have two right angles, with the base of the neck being a straight line. Because the neckline was pulled up so much, it pulled the empire waist up onto the bottom curve of my bust. It also hiked up the bottom edge of the top. You can see where I was pulling at it to try to make it magically longer.

The end result? I look dumpier than normal and I've turned a lovely top into a series of lessons on both what not to wear and how to knit something you won't be happy with.

Before I started this post, I'd been thinking about adding an oval inset just under the bust. Now, however, I think what I'm going to do is remove the neck edging and just do a couple of rows of seed stitch ... or maybe a small hemmed edging.

As for the blue top, I haven't yet decided what to do about it. I may cut, ravel (unravel?), and rejoin just below the bust ... or I may not. It's just too beautiful to stay shoved in a bag, unfinished.

I suppose this post should really have been titled: Figure Frustrations or Finishing Flops. What these projects really are, though, are learning experiences. :o)