Tropicana

As soon as it was finalized that we were going to Saba to celebrate our 10th anniversary, my first thought was, "Hooray, I'm going to be warm for the first time in 7 months!" and my second thought was, "I have to knit something for the trip!"

It's a mark of how well-adjusted I've become that knitting was only my second thought.This is the free pattern Tropicana, which I knit with Sandy's Palette Merino Sox yarn. (Yes, it's fingering weight. Yes, I'm a glutton for punishment.)

A couple of notes about the pattern; most of it was very well written, but for some reason the lace panels are worked separately, and then the whole thing is worked in the round from the chest up. If I'd bothered to read through the pattern first, it would have made a lot more sense to do the whole thing in the round because wrong side rows were just purled (so inversely, if the item were knit in the round, that would mean every other row would just be knit.) The thought that every other row could have been knitted when I purled it just about made me want to scream.
Also, I like my stuff long, so I did 9 repeats of the pattern instead of the 6 or 7 the pattern called for. Due to the enormous stretching the fabric has done, however, I think I could have gotten by with only 7 repeats. I've already had to sew up the shoulder straps 3 inches shorter because everything was sagging (and we don't want sagging; sagging is baaaaaad).

My final adjustment was to single crochet the edge of the neckline and the armholes. This helped hide the cast off and edging wonkiness and also tightened up the edges so it wouldn't sag so much. It seems to be working well, and the seams look much more finished this way.

All in all, I really like this top. I think it'll function both for warm or cold weather, and the fit is pretty good. I'm a little worried that it will continue to stretch.

I can't wait to wear this on Saba!