| Pattern | Halcyon by Lisa Richardson |
| Dates | 26th July – 12th October 2020 |
| Materials | West Yorkshire Spinners Exquisite Lace Belgravia – 102g Kremke Soul Wool Stellaris Black Gold – 34g Hem/Neckband/Cuffs: 3.25mm Body: 4.00mm |
| Size | 16-18 (to fit bust 40-42″) |
| Rating | Pattern: 3/5 Finished item: 3/5 |
This project had the aim of using up what is for me, deep stash – two skeins of WYS Exquisite Lace that I bought on my first yarn crawl in 2017. I had a look through patterns I already owned and found this one, Halycon, designed for Rowan and published in The Knitter issue 148.
I most definitely did not swatch in any form and that has resulted in a slightly more oversized top that I intended and indeed than it is styled. There was also no bust shaping which in hindsight I should have thought about. It’s an A-line top but the lack of bust increases does mean it sort of hangs off my bust point and pleats at the front.
In terms of stashbusting, success was also limited with this one. I decided to hold the WYS double with some metallic yarn I picked up from Tribe in the iknit7 May virtual yarn crawl, and I do like the effect of that. However, the metallic yarn ran out around about splitting for the underarms, so I had to get another 25g tube. I only had to break into the 2nd skein of WYS for the neckband and armhole hems, which was 2g.
Overall I have almost a full skein of WYS left and 16g of the stellaris, so I’m thinking I might hold the lace double and use both to make a matching long narrow scarf to go with this top.
The pattern was fairly easy to follow but you do realise how much handholding there is in most patterns these days, and I guess magazine patterns are limited on space, so you really do have to read ahead and instructions are truncated. The neck and shoulder shaping instructions were quite boggling at first glance, and definitely something you just wanted to get done in one sitting!
I do think there must be some error in the stitch counts because the instructions are identical for both right and left front and back neck/shoulder sections, but in both cases, the second one I did ended up with more stitches remaining than there should have been.
Overall it’s a light and dainty top but the fit makes me feel a bit meh about it.
