Ásta Sóllilja

It's a Finished Object. Over a year in the making (most of that time it was hidden away), but it's finally finished and I'm so pleased with it.
Last year, or perhaps it was in 2014 (when Kate Davies first published teasers of the Yokes patterns prior to the book's release), I had decided that I wanted to make a dress version of this design. I'm not sure what possessed me, it certainly would make a lovely tunic dress with short sleeves but the fitted version I was dreaming of might not have worked very well. Clearly it didn't, as this is where my tinkering ended up! I had gauge problems and a serious reluctance to go down the several needle sizes I should have in order to knit the dress nice and fitted and not get a 'saggy bottom' - the knitting version of Paul Hollywood's famous saying on the GBBO.
I have quite the terror of a saggy bottom after something Rich's mum Jane told me years ago when I had bought a lovely knitted pinafore dress from TopShop. I wore that dress to death and was so affected by Jane's warning that I used to hoik it up whenever I could as I sat down in it (company permitting). I'm going to find a picture of the TopShop dress in my photos actually, I quite fancy reverse-engineering it, it was so versatile. A bit itchy as it had some alpaca in it, I'm ok with wool but find alpaca gets me a bit squirmy.. Not a good look!

I hadn't blocked it here and the edges were rolling in a little in that delightful stocking stitch way. They've settled down a bit now.

I was planning on knitting a version of Miss Rachel's Yoke but I can't find the spark of 'must knit this right now' that I need to cast on, I did try but I unravelled my progress. I think I'm going to continue with my plan to finish my WIPs because they're still doing my head in (that phrase makes me sound like my 14 year old self).
What's on the list? There are 4 blankets... I am slightly appalled that I have 4 blankets on the needles!! I'm certain that one of these was cast on in 2012.
Then there is a grey cardigan that was going to be a dress but I changed my mind and left it to languish. There are two sleeves and a body piece. I have reinforced the front ready for cutting and will knit the bust area in pieces, separating from the fronts and the back. I was going to edit this so it could become an Effervescence cardigan but the ribbing/waist/pattern placement will be ridiculously off. I might add a lace bib to it like the Audrey in Unst cardigan (I want to make another of these but WIPs first!).
What else? My Bohus yoked cardi (Blue Flower) which had been edited by me in an attempt to fit the pattern to Coraline by Ysolda. This worked (or it would have done if I was the size of a 10 year old), the yoke depth I ended up with was far too shallow and while it was wearable it really wasn't right and did no justice to the original design. I spend an evening ripping it all out and picking up the live stitches and have begun to knit it as written, albeit in the wrong direction.
A surprise addition to my WIP pile was the Aptenodytes cardigan by Kristen Blom and Anna Maltz, I had seen a two-colour version of this pattern on Instagram and I had to have one. I am on the final section of ribbing after ripping it back this morning because I had lazily picked up too few stitches - not like me, I always pick up extra for ribbing. I think I was having a lazy evening.

So, that's 7 items, 4 of those are large items. I will hopefully have another FO post very soon as I'm hoping to get my Aptenodytes finished today. That is the plan!!

 Here's that dress I was on about, I'm musing on it now...