Marfy 3400 Tunic top

This is item Seven for the SWAP. 

The pattern is Marfy 3400 which is one of the free patterns from the 2014/15 catalogue and I've turned a lovely summery tunic into a nice warm Yorkshire climate style tunic. 

The fabric is from Emma One Sock and has been in my stash for a number of years.  It was part of a scrap set and I must admit this fabric was one of the chief attractions in the set.  However, when it arrived it was smaller than I'd hoped so its taken me until now to find a pattern that would fit on the fabric.  Technically it didn't fit on.  I had to shorten the already short sleeves so I could get both pieces out.  Its just a front and a back really, and as you can see I didn't leave the gap for my shoulders to show.  Once I had it cut out, I had two pieces about twenty inches by seven inches left.  I unravelled them, row by row, knotted the yarns together and made knitting wool from them... then picked up and knitted a ribbed collar using only the plain blue yarns, and a small ribbed hem, and ribbed sleeves, using the mixed pale blue/gold and plain blue yarns.  I think I like it better belted than loose in this fabric.  The knit fabric is soft and loose knitted so its come out slightly more oversized than I had anticipated.  I suspect I may have picked up too many stitches in the hem area, stretching it out a little too much. However, I didn't want to pick up too few stitches and have the ribbing draw up.  I think in a cotton or linen woven, it would come out a little more chic, after all, that would appear to be what it was designed for.

Overall I am rather pleased with how it came out.  Its not perfect, how could it be when I had to knot the yarns due to having no decent length pieces, but its very wearable and its nice and warm yet lightweight.  I actually used the entire piece of yardage bar a few tiny weeny scraps, so from that point of view it was certainly economical on fabric.  :)   It looks lovely with jeans and a skinny fitted sweater underneath, so will work well with a lot of things in my wardrobe as well as with the SWAP.  I must admit I did no fitting alterations to this.  I do like it and I think I may make a version for summer which is closer to the original design, including the rather pretty insert and the shoulder slashes. 

Today I made a toile of another of the free Marfy patterns, but I liked it so much that I am making it into a finished, wearable item.  Its not likely to be up on the blog for a week or so though, as I haven't enough binding in stash to finish it, and will need to get some more next weekend.  In between work on this new project I'll be knitting the second sock for my Monkey A Month challenge since I just realised today that I need to be done with that by Friday (and haven't even cast it on yet).