Grecian Top in Linen...

I finished it today and the results are in.....mostly... I apologize for the washed out second picture... the sun was VERY bright (which is why my eyes are closed as well)





Firstly, I think it turned out well, it didn't photograph particularly well (except for the close up), but it IS quite pretty. The linen did soften up a lot in the wash and shrunk "just enough". I still am not 100% thrilled with the neckline and may alter it yet, but I want to wear the top for a bit to see what happens with the linen as I move......

So, in summary... my mods were as follows:

I used sport weight linen rather than fingering as the patten suggests, Also, I knit the linen at a rather tight gauge which was still 26 sts over 4 inches before washing (pattern was 28, so I knit the smallest size). I also pre-washed (and dried) the skeins, but did not notice an appreciable difference in the softness of the yarn when knitting... I wouldn't bother with pre-washing next time.

I cast on as per pattern and knit as per the instructions until the measurements from underarm were 5." At this point I stopped all the bust/waist shaping so it would not interfere with the lace/cable. I can not decipher my notes as to the number of stitches I used for the lace/cable panel... sorry to those of you that would like to copy my mod, but I did manage to center the panel so that a 6 stitch cable was split when it ran up both sides (hence the reason I didn't mess with any shaping). The lace/cable I chose was from Barbara Walker's first treasury of stitch patterns (page 275), but is an arrowhead lace and 6 stitch/8 row cable (which sounds like I know what I'm talking about, but is from Ms. Walker's own description). I also added 2" in overall length to the top and I'm glad I did...... another inch wouldn't have hurt to be honest.....

Once I got to the applied cable edging, I ran into big problems..... it looked TERRIBLE with the linen, mostly because I couldn't go down any further with needle sizes unless I used darning needles (hmmmm... I wonder if that would work?? LOL). This meant that the row gauge of the cable was a lot bigger than stitch gauge of the top which made the cable flair and roll like a tire around my hips.... the In the end I decided to do a crochet shell edge. I did one row of SC and then a DC shell on top of it, but only around the sleeves and neckline... I did a single crochet bind off for the bottom edge....

I think that's it.... I would make this top again in a heartbeat, but next time I'll use silk... I think it would look fantastic in silk....