WIP: Elvira Summer Top

So here's the dilly with this project:

After spying this top on Ravelry I knew that I just had to make it. I've never paid for a pattern...until now. But I don't mind when the pattern maker is a Mom trying to make her own income. So anyways, after knitting up swatch after swatch trying to get gauge with my first choice yarn, I finally got to start on the actual top. A week and 20 rows later, I decided that the yarn was just way too thick and chunky and wasn't going to be flimsy enough to have the drape that the top is suppose to have. Being the stubborn nut that I am and hell bent on making this top, I went over to the Beehive and got me some Berocco Ultra Alpaca Fine after seeing that someone else had also used this yarn for this project and had great results (and after researching and seeing how the yarn weights were very similar to the yarn called for in this pattern...and how my original yarn was so way off!).

At first I was a little intimidated by the yarn. I'm a lover of chunky yarn and have never worked with fingering weight yarn in my life! Why I chose my first time using this yarn on a large garment is beyond me. I should've started with a sock and see how I faired with such tiny yarn. But, with new yarn in hand I started up the project again immediately. Yeah...the project was a disaster from day one. Not because of the pattern, but because I can't count properly and apparently I have the attention span of magpie. This is definitely a project that I have to do alone, in a quiet room. So that I can count and concentrate without the distraction of something shiny. I kept ending up with an extra stitch every second row and realized that I wasn't twisting my purl stitches in certain areas. After a closer inspection I saw that my eyelet pattern was completely messed up and even though I knew I was screwing up left and right, I forged on.

Then something happened to my project that forced me to start all over. I like to think that it was the Universe's way of telling me that I needed to re-start the project. Things happen for a reason, right? Well, now that I semi know what I'm doing, I'm crossing my fingers that this current attempt will work out. I decided to make the medium rather than the small size, and I've been über careful with my stitches and my counting. I'm determined to get this done before the summer is over and so that I can wear it at least once. So far the knitting has gone without a hitch. But I'm getting closer to the part where I also had trouble the first time around. I left a message on Ravelry asking for help, but so far no one has come to my rescue. I think I might have to bring this to my knit night and see if anyone there can help me out. 'Til then, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that when I get to that part it'll work itself out!