I've been working on the Allongé t-shirt from knitsimple for a while now. I wanted to get it done for 1 August, but I don't think I'm going to quite make it.
My main excuse is health, which feels odd to say. I had outpatient surgery last January, and a lot of sinus problems since then. I haven't needed time off work to speak of, but knitting and writing are suffering.
So those are the excuses. Now for the project.
The top is made in two pieces: a raglan yoke which is knit from the top down, and a body which is knit side to side. The whole thing is knit in plain stocking stitch, except for a narrow ribbed border and a little drop-stitch lace.
Easy, right? I mean, the sewing- up will require some care, but the knitting is mostly plain knit and purl.
The eyelets showing where the dropped stitches will be on the back
I had to cast on the yoke twice, because I counted the stitches wrong.
I had to rip out the yoke after about five rows, because I forgot to do the purl-side shaping on one of the armholes.
I had to rip out the back to the armhole, because I mis-read the instructions and was putting 20 rows between eyelets instead of the required 12. I didn't catch this until I had just worked the last of the 5 eyelets.
Worst of all, I'm knitting the body with one 3.75mm and one 4mm needle. I have no idea when I started doing this, but probably it's been the entire back section of the body. The rows aren't visibly different heights, although my row gauge is off. Which, of course, matters when you need to attach a horizontal piece to a vertical one. There is some math in my future.
Having said all that, the cotton/acrylic yarn I substituted (Cascade Sunseeker) has a lovely hand, and will be a lot more comfortable to wear than the cashmere/merino blend given in the pattern. (Side note: why oh why do magazines feature patterns recommending drastically out-of-season yarn? Even if you take geographical differences into account.)
I'm looking forward to wearing this sweater, but first I need to do a decent job of finishing it!