I’ve had this pattern from Blue Prints since it was first released but every time I got it out I put it away again. I originally bought it to make a sweatshirt from scraps, but lost the will to live with the thought of cutting out so many small triangles. No matter, I have finally made it from some of my most favourite fabric; a cotton and silk knit from Knitwit.
This fabric is the perfect trans-seasonal weight, but I still needed to wear a silk Plantain under it to accommodate the slightly chilly weather up on the icefields.
The back of the top is constructed in the same way as the front. I didn’t count the number of triangles that I had to cut out, but trust me, there are a lot! I had to overexpose the photograph so that the construction would show – sorry!
I really struggled to get my centre front points to meet precisely. I unpicked until my fabric nearly turned to rags and then gave up. This is how they should look
and this is what I managed.
I am marginally disappointed, but will live with it for this top. I did compare it with the photograph on the pattern, and felt less terrible. I think I might modify two triangles so that they meet in a point next time I make the pattern.
However, all the other joins went into points beautifully, so annoying that the most obvious is so imprecise. This rather large image is a nice example and it also shows the pocket, which I really like.
The other thing I noticed, after the fact, was that the bottom band continued straight on from the body, which on my hips gives a very baggy look that I don’t care for. I made this top the day before we left on our holiday so didn’t have time to unpick the band, reduce the length and resew it, so I did the time honoured “fix” of threading some wide elastic through the band which pulled it in a couple of centimetres. This has worked well, but I may still unpick and reduce when I get home.
This top has been in pretty constant rotation on our trip. Followers on Instagram may recognise this photo; I was ensconced in the panorama car on Via Rail doing my knitting and watching the very lovely world go by. This top is just so comfortable for this.
