I began the matching shrug for the completed tube top.

The annoying part? The tube top is too loose! If I would have moved even an inch in the picture, you would be seeing much more than you ever wanted to in a knitting blog! The gauge called for is 13×20 in st st and 18×22 in 2×2 rib. I chose the 36″ bust (smaller than what I needed) based on previous experience. Although I did not use exactly the same yarn, my gauge was 14×20 which over the 122 cast on stitches should have taken the measurement down to 35 1/4″ or so. My 2×2 gauge was 16×22 which is a little off, but the whole purpose of rib is stretch anyway, so I wasn’t worried about that part at all. I can’t believe the top part is too big! I even tried wet blocking which can make things bigger, but what I hoped to do what stretch it out lengthwise a bit so that the width would shrink. Guess I wasn’t aggressive enough with stretching the length because if anything, it seems just a little bigger in the width. Arrgh! Normally I wouldn’t mind too much giving this to someone else, but i REALLY like it and :frog: is just not an option. Guess I’ll have to come up with some kind of elastic trick unless I get some other ideas from my fellow knitters!