FO: Gil Ain't No Holla Back Girl

I have been knitting garments with some measure of success for about two years.  For a while everything I made was amazing, but then I found myself in a bit of a hit-or-miss patch where nothing seemed to turn out quite as planned.  So when I decided to make some changes in needle size and stitch count on the Holla Back Tank I was really nervous.

I went down to a size US 4 needle and knit the front per the size 36 directions.  This gave me a fabric with a density that I liked.  Not too tight, but not see-through either.

After I finished the front I looked at it for quite some time, trying to decide if it was too big.  It wasn't but when paired with a similar size back it would be more sack-like than sexy.  And for once I wanted to knit something that would turn out the way I imagined.  So I took a deep breath and cast on for the size 32 back.

It took me several times to get the first few inches of chart correct, but I finally vowed that I would not rip back again and stopped second guessing myself.  Emma Welford wrote up excellent directions and even though I found myself yelling "Is this what you mean by stretched?  That's going to be too tight to be anything other than a medieval binding!" it worked out perfectly.

Some designers you have to second guess, but Emma is not one of them.  She does not hand-hold through the pattern, but she does give you all the information you need and trust you the knitter to be intelligent enough to put it into practice.  The pattern, like all of the Holla Knits collections, is absolutely lovely.  Even without the KAL the support is superb.  When I was first deliberating over what size and needles word somehow got back to Emma, who left a comment on the blog offering her assistance if needed.  I highly recommend it and am really looking forward to wearing it to celebrate my birthday tonight.

For more FOs, check out Tami's Amis!