A slight change in plans.... OR... How to spot a knitter with a background in Millinery.

I learned early in my hat-making career that you can hide a multitude of sins - if indeed make a silk purse from a sows ear - with the right size cabbage-rose, spray of feathers or well-placed bead feature.
I've now extended the theory to include crochet flowers and slip-stitch chain detailing on knitwear.

...and the unravelling of sleeves and blocking-the-bejaysus-out-of-the-garment to reduce the dodgey "make one stitch" increases. A few little stitches with a darning needle can work a treat, too.

But it still looks wonky.... and not at all like the sleeved tunic I thought I was making.


A good knitter would have unravelled and started again at the first (garter-stitch-edging-on-the bodice-gone-wrong) mistake, but I ploughed on.

I was on a mission to learn all the techniques that the pattern was introducing and calling the result a "toile". It was a practise garment that would be snagged and paint-spattered too soon to worry about little or large imperfections. Serious OFMK knitting.

There was a little issue with the size. I wanted an oversized tunic, but probably one that would fit within the next year or two.

Perhaps I should have done that gauge swatch...?
I'm assuming that by the time the girl fits into it, she won't like it. This run around the backyard (with the dress falling off the shoulders) will probably be one of its few outings.

Luckily, I learned a lot on this much-embellished sows-ear OFMK toile.