Bergère de France pull sans manches

Baby D is sleeping after a couple of hours out on the town, my lunch is almost ready, and it's the perfect time to record my latest knitting project for posterity. The story of how this tank top came to be is pretty neat. In the summer of 2008, my parents, sisters and I were driving to PEI for a cousin's wedding. Along the way, we stopped by Quebec City to camp and see the sights. We happened upon a garage sale, and this guy was selling a bag full of this beautiful orange cotton yarn (ten balls in total); it had clearly once belonged to his mom or sister or someone, because he was asking 10$ for it. I suspected that it was worth a fair bit more, but I haggled just for kicks, and got him down to 7 or 8$. Less than a dollar per ball is a great price for any yarn. Besides, my mom was so taken with the colour that she offered to buy it for me if I'd make her something with it.

When I got home, I looked up the name on the yarn label and discovered it was from France and normally costs around 3€ a ball, which works out to 3.75$. Furthermore, they had all their patterns available for free on their website! I looked up a few patterns made from the yarn I had, ran them by my mom, and downloaded the one she chose (with the enchanting name of "Pull sans manches"- sleeveless pullover). The pattern is in French, which isn't a huge deal except for the fact that it's not only the language that's different, it's also the way they explain things. I started out by translating the first section of the pattern, and promptly got stuck.

That is, until 2010, the year of no yarn purchases, rolled around. This year, I decided not to buy any new yarn and to knit entirely from what I already have, which is substantial. I made a list, and there are about 30 things I could make, each taking upwards of a month. So, I've been working through that list and item 5 is this tank top!

I cast on as we were driving to NY to pick up my in-laws on April 16th. The back was a long, dull exercise in perseverance. The front has been considerably more interesting, owing to the interest of the lace panel. Also, because it's for my mom, who is almost as tall as me, I added some length to it, after noting that several of the people on Ravelry (Facebook for knitters) who had made it found it was too short. The pattern calls for a total length of 55 cm from top to bottom, and mine is 61. I also made the ribbing longer, because I thought it looked a bit silly with only 3 cm of ribbing.
Although it looks like I'm reasonably close to being done, even when I finish knitting the two pieces, I have to soak them (I bring them everywhere with me, so they get a bit grubby by the end), pin them out to the correct measurements (which will also punch up the look of the lace on the front), sew them up, and knit edgings on the collar and arms. Plus sew in a label.

The yarn is quite fine, so it takes ages to knit up. Luckily, I haven't fallen into the black hole of knitting: this is when you knit and knit and knit some more, and find out you've only added half a centimeter. Still, it will all be worth it when it's done and my mom can look beautiful in it!