This knitting project has been a long time coming. It was on my needles since August 2017!
Details
Pattern: Luella Top by Suzie Sparkles
Yarn: Wollmeise Lace yarn
My notes available on Ravelry here
I bought this yarn at the Oslo Knitting Festival in October, 2016. It was a 300g laceweight skein, which was a one-of-a-kind. For this top, I held the yarn double as it’s written for a sock-weight yarn. As a result, this whole top was one big game of yarn chicken!
The pattern itself is very straightforward, a top-down round-yoke jumper which is the same back and front. That’s nice, as I don’t need to worry about which way to put it on! Of course the biggest change I made was to add beads into the lace yoke instead of the bobbles that the pattern calls for. I guess this saved me some yardage which was added to the bottom of the jumper! Initially I bought one packet of 125 beads thinking it would be plenty… I waws wrong! This jumper required about 500 beads and I had none left at the end!
This picture kind of looks like it has and ombre effect but it doesn’t seem to in real life. If I’d had more yarn I would have made the top a bit longer in both the body and the sleeves. As it is, it hits me right at the elbow and the hip. It works fine with mid-rise pants but I would have liked it a bit longer. I used every scrap of yarn, even the swatch!
The yarn itself is very smooth and feels almost like cotton, although it is 100% wool. It was really lovely to knit with and feels smooth and soft against the skin. Before it was blocked the fabric felt a bit stiff, but after blocking it’s got a lovely drape and handle.
I highly recommend this pattern if you’re looking for a simple top-down top, with a bit of lace interest. It would look beautiful with bobbles too. The pattern would be a good basis for a plain jumper too, if you left off the lace! I’m looking forward to wearing this top once the weather warms up a bit. Right now it’s still too cold in Norway to even contemplate!
Christina Hopgood 