My “quick summer knit” ended up taking most of the summer! I used SweetGeorgia’s Flaxen Silk Fine for this top in the color “Starlight”, and the pattern is Holli Yeoh’s “Grotto Nymph”. There were a few challenges in knitting Grotto Nymph for me – knitted lace, linen yarn, fingering weight top. I live in a warm climate, and while I enjoy knitting and wearing wool sweaters, it’s not very realistic to wear a wool sweater for most of the year. I wanted to try knitting up something I could wear most of the time!
Knitting with Linen Yarn
A tip I used for knitting with linen was to pull the yarn from the outside of the ball; knots are notoriously frustrating to untie in this yarn. I missed the elastic quality you get from knitting with wool. This lack of elasticity also contributed to a callous on my finger where I tension the yarn. I didn’t enjoy the process of knitting with linen yarn but I like the resulting fabric. I have linen yarn in a different color to make another top, I just need to pick the pattern!
Adventures in Knitted Lace
The lace pattern is interesting; it’s scaled for each size (which accommodates a wide range of bust sizes from 31.5″ – 61.5″), so the pattern will change slightly depending on which size you knit up. It’s knit from the bottom up in-the-round. Once the knitting changes from in-the-round to back-and-forth, the purl side of the lace was a bit tricky for me. I had difficulty keeping track of which way to make the slanted decrease on the purl side because there are yarn overs on every row.
I love the cabled decrease on the “raglan” parts of the front shoulder shaping. It’s a very elegant way to make a decrease and something I’d like to keep in mind for a later project!
Cast On, Cast Off
It would be nice to learn a more elastic cast on; I think it will be fine but I can tell the cast on edge is a bit tight. I cast off “normally” (k2, *slip 1st stitch on right needle over the 2nd, k1, repeat from * to end) for the neckline but used a more elastic cast off (k2, *slip the 2 just knitted stitches back to the left needle, k2 through the back loop, k1, repeat from * to end) for the armholes and liked that much more. The elastic cast off is definitely something I’ll use for necklines and cuffs in the future.
Overall I’ve been very happy with this project and would like to make it again. I do think next time I’ll go down a needle size as this turned out a tiny bit large for my liking.
Have you been enjoying some warm weather knitting lately? Have you tried knitting Grotto Nymph or another sleeveless top pattern in linen yarn? What do you think about knitting with linen? Or knitted lace?
