Pattern by Yamagara

I made mine in...

Size: 32 inch bust

Yarn: Memo's Art House 5-ply DK cotton acrylic cone in Navy Blue, and assorted scrap DK 100% cotton yarn

Needle size: 4.0mm (body), 3.5mm (ribbing and hem)

When I first saw this design by Yamagara, I fell head over heels in love with it. What an elegant, elevated shape. I wanted to use short strands of leftover yarn for the contrast colour, instead of the variegated hand-dyed yarn in the sample knit. It was the perfect stashbusting project.

The construction of this garment was so beautiful. I saw the genius of Yamagara's design thought process unfold as I followed her pattern, and I am absolutely floored. I am a huge fan. I always give an honest review, but please know that I love this design beyond any flaws it might have.

The colourwork portion was so cool to watch as it worked up! There I was, knitting a regular strip of fabric after casting on, and then 20 rows in, BAM, I realised the fabric had a zigzag wave shape to it. I am simultaneously confused by how?? and also thoroughly amazed.

My favourite part of this design is the waist ribbed hem. The techniques used were so effective, it felt magical watching the hem take shape. I learned so, so much.

However, picking up the provisional cast on felt a little dubious. This is not my first rodeo with a provisional cast on, but because of the lacework above it and the rib to come below it, a lot of stitches were twisted and the final outcome was not as neat as I would have liked. I recommend just doing a plain knit row after picking up the cast on, before going into the ribbed hem. This will create a very clean line of colour change.

I love my final garment, but there are things I would do differently if I were to make this again. I would like to make the torso colourwork shorter in the future for my own fit. Additionally, I find the top not oversized enough for the perfect batwing look, but that is probably caused by my gauge and modifications made. The sleeve hems curl inwards, but that is the nature of stockinette, even with the garter hemline trying (but failing) to counter this curl.

I modified the entire pattern for DK weight yarn, but other than changing increase rates and stitch counts, I followed the original construction pretty closely. I will provide modification details without revealing the pattern details; please purchase the pattern if you wish to do the same.

Cast On and Torso

• Cast on 130 sts. (In the future, I would cast on 156 sts)

• Followed pattern until row 37, where I did an increase round. Next increase round at row 41. Last increase round at row 45 (230 sts).

• Knit to 22cm length before splitting for front and back.

Split for Front and Back

• Row 1, 7, 15, 23, 29, 37: decrease rows.

• Other rows: Stockinette.

• 103 sts on the needles before start of shoulder shaping.

Shoulder Shaping

• Shoulder shaping: Turn after 6 sts on first shortrows. Turn after 5 sts on all other shortrows.

• For the back piece, I bound off 35 sts as the base of the back neckline.

• For the front piece, I bound off 29 sts as the base of the front neckline.

• Followed pattern for neckline shaping rate.

Waist Hem

• In the future, I would knit all sts in the first row after picking up the provisional cast on, before going into the rib pattern.

• Resolve all double stitches in the last row by using Froginette’s trick, but set up the stitches for purling since this is ribbing.