Just Call Me Crazy

A while back I purchased a cute piece of turquoise twill fabric embroidered with bumble bees, thinking it would make a cute skirt for my soon to be seven-year-old granddaughter. Her birthday is coming up in April so I've started thinking about digging the fabric out and making the skirt.

Since the fabric will be the focus, my intention is to make a simple a-line, no-pattern-necessary skirt. Orginally I had thought to purchase a yellow t-shirt to go with the skirt, but out of the blue I was hit with the crazy idea to knit a sweater to go with the skirt.

I wanted a short-sleeved cardigan sweater but while searching for a pattern, I noticed a disturbing trend; most all the patterns I could find were knit with chunky yarns on large needles...instant gratification knitting, whereas I wanted to use Lily's Sugar 'n Cream cotton and #3 knitting needles (this is the first crazy part).

Faced with the prospect of trying to produce a sweater without a pattern, I opted to scale back my design and knit a tank top using a sewing pattern as a guide (this is the second crazy part). Shaping will be limited to just the armholes and neck, as I'm planning for the tank to have straight side seams.

The photo represents my progress so far; it measures just about 6 inches long. I won't say it's a breeze, but it does go a little faster than I expected. Right now I'm just waiting on a measurement from my daughter before I proceed.

I'll keep you posted on my progress.