By request: Italian bolero

So this pattern isn't Italian -- neither is the yarn -- nor the knitter!  I call it the Italian Bolero because I made it specifically to coordinate with a dress I was bringing on an extended visit to Italy in mid-fall 2009. We walked about in Venice and Rome and drove the winding mountain roads in Tuscany... sooooo beautiful.

My intention with the bolero was coverage without suggesting austerity; I also didn't want something that would take five million years to knit.

Bamboo Bolero by Lincraft

knit with 4 skeins Crystal Palace Yarns Panda Silk Solid in 3012 Spruce

I didn't quite follow the pattern on the edging.  That is, I would have followed the pattern if I wasn't so flippin ready to be done with the thing.  The fingering weight yarn and the size US3 needles were, at the time, the tiniest, fiddliest materials I had used.  So there is the matter of "Rep last 5 rounds twice"... yeah, completely ignored that.  And I bound off too tightly.  Whatev.  It's done.  I wore it in Florence -- BOOYAH.

And I still wear it!

Jewel tones win all the prizes.

Oooh, sleeve detail

The color in these photos are much truer, thanks to natural light.