Allysum Petals

 

 

 I had such a marvelous time knitting Kim Hargreaves’ pattern, Blossom, that I couldn’t resist trying another pattern from her latest pattern book, Misty. I chose Petal, because it uses 4-ply yarn, and I re-discovered while working on Blossom how truly delicious it is to work with soft-cotton yarn in that fingering weight—the resulting fabric is so delicate, drapes so well, and feel so good in my hands. How could I resist doing more? And I am drawn to the delicate, yet modern look of the design for Petal. The little dots created by her cluster stitches creates a fabric that is like a sea of white alyssum flowers illuminated by the summer sun.

 alyssum

Finally, a great opportunity to use up the 4-ply cotton that’s been sitting in my stash for years! I’ve felt so guilty about hoarding all my discontinued Rowan yarn while buying more yarn for other projects, but the truth is, until I find a replacement that’s as good as the 4-ply cotton or 4-ply soft, I refuse to waste it on any inferior pattern. Only the best for this ultra-delicious yarn! But this pattern is so feminine, yet modern, I think it is worthy of the yarn:

 

 See how cute this top looks with a flirty, patterned summer skirt? I chose the white yarn from my stash to knit this one, because nothing says summer like a crisp white cotton top. I am already loving the bottom band I’ve knitted in the white:

 

Besides, there are glimmers of white in my fabulous Tahari skirt that resembles a garden at twilight, and it would be divine to have TWO Kim Hargreaves tops to wear with it! And white is one of the dappled colors in my inspirational Panetone drawing

Dennis Basso

which means it will match everything else I have inspired by that color scheme! 

 

I hope nothing goes wrong with my knitting! Oh, I’ve knitted my pattern gages and made all my calculations for the top based on a template sweater. But gages sometimes lie. I’ve had the weird experience of seeing my knitting grow, but also shrink exponentially in the course of knitting a sweater. I can only hope that my experience knitting 4-ply cotton in the past will take some of the guess-work out of this one, and that it will stay as steady and true to gage as Blossom did.