Before the first leaf falls...

...autumn knitting begins. First finished project of the new season -- Cross-over Rib Top by Sally Melville. Knit in Koigu PPPM and PM. Pattern available from www.Patternfish.com (I've linked before -- check previous post if you're interested in this pattern).

There was one small error in the pattern (a missing decrease), which hopefully has been corrected by now. I had emailed Sally about it, and apparently it was supposed to have been corrected some time ago, but had slipped through the editing cracks. Apparently Patternfish claims that they will notify purchasers of any patterns they sell about future errata -- this was not my experience, but perhaps others have been more fortunate.

And, as promised, a quick look at the latest vintage machine!




It's a Necchi BU Mira -- from around the middle 1950's -- straight stitch and zig zag, but none of the fancy stitches of the WonderWheel models. I'm toying with the idea of removing the motor and setting it into a treadle, but for now it's still tailed (electrical). There are some who dislike the green color, but luckily j'adore! At this point, there isn't that much room left for new acquisitions, so I'm thinking this is it as far as numbers go. (That hysterical laughter in the background - surely you can hear it? - is Mr. MinglingYarn. For some strange reason he isn't buying that last statement!)

Edited to add -- I received an email on 7 September from Julia Grunau at Patternfish apologizing for any inconvenience and explaining the (small) problem with the pattern. Thank you; I appreciate the communication. So that others will be aware of how the pattern updating works, I have copied a portion of her email below. I'll be returning to the site in future, and I hope others will check it out also. Karen

"Whenever an updated pattern is issued, the buyer will see a notice in their pattern stash saying that a new version is available, and the user just has to click to download it. We are very sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused, but as far as we know, all is now well."

Eventually she hopes...

...it will all come together in perfect harmony. Until then, here's a photo of the random pieces of Sally Melville's Cross-Over-Rib top.

You'll notice that the original is done in all one color of Koigu -- my version, however, is not. I'd like to say it was a deliberate design decision, but in truth, that's what I had. I've collected quite a few random skeins of Koigu over the years, probably with an eye to making socks -- or knitting something modular, but somehow they just never got knit. So, we shall see. It's an awful lot of knitting if it doesn't work out!

The back has a third color introduced, (a darker shade of olive), with the two yarns of the fronts blended at the bottom. This was done to tie together the colors of the front, and, more importantly, to ensure that there would be enough yarn to knit the back. Here's hoping!

Here's a closeup of the back -- (clicking makes bigger)

It will take a lot more knitting until it's finished (34 stitches x 40 rows per 4" goes slowly around here!), but I'm powering through, because I have some absolutely lovely Color-Changing Cotton from Wolle that I can't wait to get started on.

And who knows? Maybe there will be a photo of a sleek Italian vintage sewing machine to feast your eyes on soon!