I was so happy to see Twist Collective's summer issue when it launched Sunday night. Uhura caught my eye immediately, but I liked Chartres too, and actually found some stash yarn that would work for it, 6 balls of Valley Yarns Longmeadow in color 15 (dark blue, royal blue actually) I got perfect stitch gauge on US 6 needles, but my row gauge is a little bit too big... pattern gauge is 7.5 rpi, and I'm getting about 7.25. This is ok, as I am tall and don't mind if the top is a bit longer than the schematic length. I'm making the second size 35", which is 1" positive ease on me. It looked sort of big so I decided to add waist shaping to nip it in a bit. I'm decreasing 1 st per side on 3 rows, for 12 st dec in all (front and back) ~ 2" dec. Increasing the same for the bust.
So far, I've knitted about 8.5" on the back. I am loving the pattern, pretty, fast, and the chart is intuitive, easy enough to memorize. The yarn is perfect, soft, with a slight sheen and a wonderful deep color... I'll feel like a princess wearing this!
Here's my Debadeur #3 (don't you love that creative naming?) from Phildar No. 469 "Special Twenty", 
Spring 2007. I started this last summer and worked on it one day, during a long car trip. I've set a new goal: finishing this summer. The gauge is 6.5 spi, 9 rpi on US 3 and the back piece is straight stockinette, no shaping. This project is making me wish I had a knitting machine. Knitting a relatively large piece of stockinette with fingering weight yarn (brown sheep cotton fine) just isn't that fun; progress is glacially slow. I'm not sure about the color, it looks yellow in some light and I can't wear yellow, it washes out my skin and makes me look sickly! The yarn feels rather stringy and my stockinette looks uneven, I'm hoping it will bloom and even out after a good soak. I liked my swatch on US 2 needles better, at a gauge of 7 spi. Now for the good: 1. this garment is going to be feather light 2. the back is the worst (biggest) piece and it's about 1/2 done 3. the yarn's yardage is fantastic and there won't be many ends to weave in 4. all the other pieces of the garment incorporate lace and that should be fun.
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