“Wow! Did you really knit that?” is a phrase I have been basking in hearing for the last couple of weeks

Why? Because I have been wearing my finished Esme!

Esme is so pretty!

Esme has turned out to be a beautiful garment

Because I chose the cream alpaca yarn, it is spun slightly differently to the other colours (a worsted spin?) it is slightly thinner than the other yarns so has given a lighter, airier garment (which I quite like) but it did come up slightly small even after increasing the needle size from 4mm to 4.5mm. With hindsight, maybe I should have kept the needle size and knitted a medium. I have put on a little weight!

The great thing about a this yarn though, is that once you wear it it does relax and mould to your curves so I can report that after a couple of wears, it’s not quite so snug

Wanna see the back?

So love those cables….

The cables look great and the clever peplum nicely disguises how big my bum is getting!

I did find that the neck kept popping up…

See what I mean?

nearly a standup collar!

So after these photos I slip stitched the back of the neck, between those two cables, down in place. I should also share with you that after my first attempt at casting off was too tight and unyielding, I redid it with an elastic cast off that works SO much better.  It lays beautifully now

I also discovered that a couple of carefully inserted safety pins in the top of the cup of my bra, hold the neck of my top down to it doesn’t peep out of the neck

I wore Esme when I went after work to the late night at the Olympia Spring Knitting and Stitching Show – it’s a great time to go – no crowds and I didn’t have to take any time off work!

I took my coat off to put it in the cloak room and immediately the woman behind me said the headswellingly welcome line of “Wow! Did you knit that?” I grinned for about an hour!

I did, of course, have to go to the Purl Alpaca stand and show Tracey and Kari Helene our creation – they were impressed and immediately tweeted me in Esme !

It was actually a nicer picture of Esme – this is with the top pinned out of the way, the neck stitched down and relaxed a little after wearing and matching  jewelry that I first wore for my wedding! The only thing wrong with this piccy is the goofy look on my face!

Goofy speccy Susan in a lovely Esme….