This may be a total disaster, but I’m going to give it the old college try anyway.

I’m using a heavier yarn than called for, and it’s a boucle, which is a pain to knit. As I found out from swatching, the yarn biases a lot. I tried a few textured stitch patterns, which helped slightly with the bias, but I didn’t really like the look of them.

I also need to knit the yarn at a looser gauge in order to get the look and drape that I want AND I really want to target a size in between S and M, which means recalculating all of the math.

Additionally, I only swatched flat, not in the round. So I’ll probably get even more biasing, and likely a change in gauge as well. But to get a true gauge swatch in the round that would be big enough to really get a good gauge, it would have been huge - so I figured that the bottom of the tunic will just be the gauge swatch. If it’s way off, I’ll just have to rip it and restart.

All things considered, I probably shouldn’t attempt this at all - but I bought the pattern to use with the yarn, and since I have no other use for the yarn and no other yarn to use with the pattern, I guess it’s worth a shot.

Recalculating the math shows that the measurements given for the chest don’t match the measurement when calculated from the gauge/stitches. For example, for size M, the number of the stitches at the armhole multiplied by the gauge gives 36.4”, but the schematic says 38”. But for size S, the calculated measurement is 33.8, while the schematic says 34, which at least is pretty close. Other than size S, it looks like there is about 1.5” difference in all the other sizes. How annoying. What’s up with that? I am guessing that perhaps it’s due to the armholes and the tank design - it’s more of a “designed-to-fit” measurement at that point than a physical measurement. Otherwise, the top part might be too loose.

So basically, if this works it, it will be a miracle.

By the time I got to the midsection, and reviewing my gauge, I decided to just finish off the top using all of the measurements for size S.

I finished it once, but didn’t really like how strappy the shoulder pieces were on me - I’m not really a fan of tank-top type straps. Plus I wanted to lengthen the overall piece a little more. So I ripped the top part back to the separation of front and back, and knit another inch. Then I separated for the front and back again, but didn’t do as many decreases on the armhole edge to make the straps wider.

I also shortened the length of the armholes, because I wanted to be able to wear it without another tank or cami underneath, and not have the sides of my bra showing through the armholes.

Although the edges didn’t really need anything to finish them, I ended up doing two rows of single crochet around the armholes because I still wanted them to be a little smaller.

Overall, I think it worked out pretty well, and better than I was expecting. The yarn is a bit heavy, especially for the pockets, but it works well enough.

I did a purl ridge at the start of the pockets, and I wouldn’t do that if I made it again, because the pocket actually turns down lower than that when it’s hanging.