Pattern Review: Summer Trellis

In keeping with finding new to me designers who offer size inclusive patterns I stumbled across Kniterella on Ravelry.com and her Summer Trellis top. I chose this pattern primarily because I loved the simple yoke design. It gave a little intricacy without seeming too involved.

This pattern has charts AND written directions which for this new chart reader was a true plus! To be fully transparent the charts themselves are not necessarily easy to remember but the stitches themselves are easy enough to remember in each row.

There’s a sweet dancing pair of stitches called Left and Right Twist that I just loved! By the time I passed the yoke I was sad to see them go. This worked up surprisingly fast. I used Fairmount Fibers ‘Alegria’ yarn which is a superwash merino and polyamide blend sock yarn.

I made the size six (6) in the short sleeve version and used three (3) hanks of Alegria. Once finished I went ahead and blocked it by soaking in a sink full of cool water and wool wash. The stitches relaxed beautifully and evened out which made the top look very polished.

Final thoughts:

I like that charted and written instructions are included. I’m sure that’s a tedious step for the designer but it’s so helpful when having to remember left versus right symbols.
It’s really nice when designers split out directions for sizes in individual sections versus having them jumbled in a long paragraph.
More than all else, the shaping in this pattern gave me just what I wanted. To avoid the boxy look and give some actual dimension to my non box shaped body.

Here’s a few pictures of the project, if you want to follow along as I work through the pattern in real time follow my instagram documentation.

http://@instagram.com/beyond_swatches