I have to tell you, I love designing tops. The idea of wearing knits all year long makes total sense to me. And it is alway a most welcome challenge.
The story of this design started with fun field trip, arranged by Lynn and Lacey – the wonderful owners of my favorite LYS Yarning for You. We went to Trendsetter Yarns headquarters, any knitter’s dream destination. Shelves and shelves and shelves of most beautiful, luxurious yarn and the generous owner Barry let us go through all of them! Oh my. Imagine children in candy shop and you will get the idea. My bag with yarn was a size of a Mini Cooper and among all scrumptious yarn I bought, was 2 yarns, destined to be together: Lana Grossa Linea Pura Solo Lino and Lotus Yarn Cathay 4, hand dyed exclusively for Trendsetter Yarns!
Those of us who live in warm climate and don’t want to give up on knitting at Summer, often play with idea of using the linen yarns. But, you know, linen is not always easy to work with, t could be quite unyielding. But the Solo Lino is a game changer. This is softest 100% plant fiber yarn I’ve been working with. the stitch definition is to die for and colors are most beautiful. I chose the Beige color – the perfect background for the multi colored Cathay.
Another thing I really like to play with when I’m designing lightweight tops is the direction of work. I’ve made a few designs which are worked sideways and, after some consideration, the new design was shaped also in horizontal direction. The background is worked in Stockinette stitch and color is added in few stripes of different height, worked in Feather and Fan stitch. It creates the nice scalloped inserts, with flattering silhouette for any body type. The Garter stitch bottom band, cuffs and neckline create a nice frame.
Waves and Sand Top is also a great opportunity to use your stash because all of us have these 2-3 skeins of most beautiful multi-colored yarn which we can’t find a proper use for! But if you decide to work with plain colors, or even in one color, the juxtaposition of Stockinette and Feather and Fan will add lots of visual interest to your top!
