Meet Skinny Annie

...my tailor's dummy. She's a permanent occupant of my sewing room, and has modelled many odd things in her time. She was particularly helpful when I was selling belly dance hipscarves on eBay, and spent most of a year wearing a long, full, black skirt and a tight black top to better show the colour contrast.

very fetching

She's spent a significant amount of this summer wearing the above outfit, though the hat is a recent addition: a sundress that needs 'altering' into a skirt, and Minnie, who is awaiting fairly radical surgery. I'm not sure how she got the name; it's not like anyone ever speaks it out loud. But it appears to have stuck, in my head, at least. But now, she is wearing my newest sweater, the Asymmetrical Rib Pullover from Loop-d-Loop. This was a fun and satisfying project, and used up the Noro Iro I had lying around from my failed Olympic bid.

The closest she'll ever get to real arms

The sweater pattern is gorgeous - the construction is fascinating and so, so clever. One thing to watch for, though - it's important to get both stitch and row gauge, because part of this is knit on the bias, and if the ratio doesn't work out right, your diagonals won't be at the right angle. I didn't get row gauge - I had 120% of the rows per inch that I should have had - but I fudged it. The shaping sections instruct you to increase/decrease on each end of every right side row - all I did was NOT shape on every 5th right side row - that way, I have the right number of shapings per inch. Make sense? I love the finished garment - and I've had a lot of compliments on it. If I was to change anything about the pattern, I would have moved the armhole on piece 2 higher (i.e. closer to the neck). It's slightly too dropped for my personal preference, so the sleeve is a bit 'dolman' and slightly restricts movement. The Noro Iro, apart from the row gauge issue, was a wonderful match for this project; the unusual construction means that the stripes run up/down or diagonally across the body, pointing in to the waist - all of which is so much more flattering than the horizontal lines you usually see. The resulting fabric is sturdy but not uncomfortably bulky, and on 6.5mm needles, this was a pretty fast knit.

fabric close-up

I still don't think Iro is going to be one of my first choice yarns though; it's hard work. There is little elasticity to it, and along with the bulkiness, it's quite a workout. I did acclimatise after the first two or three training knitting sessions, but it was this quality that made it an unsuitable choice for intensive Olympic knitting, and still counts against it now.