Will The Real Audrey Back Piece Please Stand Up?

I had a lovely trip to South Texas. Given that it was July, the weather was actually quite pleasant. I got to spend time with my brother and his wife in Corpus Christi and to see a wonderful friend from college get married to the man of her dreams in San Antonio. Pretty good stuff overall. And as a side benefit, I finally got to show John my alma mater. It was fun to walk around an point out all these old reference points in my life, but a bit strange since it was so quiet and empty (there's no graduate school to keep the place busy in the summer).

There would be pictures, except for the fact that I packed up the camera and then promptly left it on the kitchen counter in my hurry to get out the door and on the way to the plane (or perhaps it was the excitement of getting boxes from Levenger and from ThreadBear -- it always seems like my very cool packages arrive just as I have to go away for a while).

But I do have a few pictures of what I worked on while travelling. And with the flights to Texas and the drive between Corpus and San Antonio, I had plenty of travelling time.

Lately I'd been feeling guilty about Audrey -- or rather, my lack of any significant progress on Audrey at all since completing the first sleeve. I think it had to do with fear of darts and how to make the decreases and increases look perfect. I toyed with changing the decreasing and increasing strategy and with leaving them out. In the end, I just decided to trust Kim Hargreaves and follow the instructions.

The back of this top did teach me some humility. I miscounted on where to start doing the decreases and ended up ripping it back to the beginning to correct my mistake (it just wasn't one of those things I could ignore). In retrospect, I'm pretty proud of myself because instead of feeling all annoyed and frustrated and shoving everything back into its ziploc bag, I actually picked up the stitches after ripping and just started over again.

And I never should have distrusted the wisdom of Kim H's pattern writing. I actually rather like the increases and decreases that are called for.

 
Decreases and Increases

Now that I am finished with the front, I find it rather strange to see that the front is only a bit wider than the sleeve. I did some test stretching to try to convince myself that this top will be big enough. Ribbing is magical stuff.

I am now having a little internal battle with myself over what to do next. If I was smart, I would cast on for the second Audrey sleeve. But my Chai top is also awaiting blocking and some sleeves. And then there is the Tess' ribbon tank top. And I want to swatch my Phil Ruban. So many difficult decisions.

Before I sign off and head for my blocking board, I just have to show off one of the things that came in the mail just before I left for Texas.

Can A Girl Ever Have Too Many Nice Leather Bags?

One of my favorite online shopping venues (lover of neat office supplies and shiny things that I am) is Levenger. Much of their stuff is pretty pricey, but sometimes they have some great deals in their outlet section. This lovely leather tote/folio bag which is roughly 12" x 12" was being closed out for $29.95. How could I resist? Certainly not a knitting bag (you might be able to squeeze a sock project in if pressed), but very nice for carrying papers and books neatly for business-y reasons.