Summery Stripes Make this Top Fun to Knit

It may just be me, but I really think that any project that is worked in stripes goes faster than the same project would if you knit it in a solid color. There’s just something about stripes that makes you want to keep knitting or that causes you to kind of race yourself to see how quickly you can get through the next stripe, even if you’re not consciously thinking about it.

This women’s boatneck top from Caron is worked in two colors of Simply Soft, and it is really cute in bold red and white stripes but there are tons of colors to choose from so you could make yours more muted if you like.

It’s worked flat in pieces (which honestly is easier when you’re knitting stripes because you don’t have to worry about color jogs) and is rated for intermediate knitters.

You can get the pattern alone or pick up supplies while you’re on their website.

[Photo: Yarnspirations.]

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I don’t even know what to say about this amazing knitting pattern. The Bestiary Scarf from Monstra & Mirabilia is so full of details it’s a little intimidating to talk about.

It features, as the designer describes it, an “artistic encyclopaedia of Western mythical creatures.”

The pattern includes a dragon, harpy, Medusa, chimaera, centauress, phoneix, kraken, mermaid, sew serpent, cyclops, wyvern, Pegasus, amphiptere and amphibaena. (It’s a good thing there’s a photo of the proejct with everything labelled because I definitely didn’t know the names for everything.) It’s also designed like a landscape, with water and land creatures toward the bottom ends and sky creatures toward the top.

The dragon is at the center and is worked sideways so it will show as upright when you wear it.

The scarf is worked in double knitting, so the colorwork appears in the opposite colors on the other side.

It’s worked in light fingering weight yarn (on size 0 US or 2mm knitting needles) and the colorwork is shown in charts. The pattern also includes some video tutorials and written instructions to help you along. The designer says the pattern is for intermediate knitters, and “advanced beginners may succeed with patience and the help of the video tutorials.”

When I was an advanced beginner this kind of a pattern would have brought me to tears, but if you love a challenge, and a project that you’ll wear and get tons of astonished reactions every time, this is the project for you. And of course if you have a few double knitting projects under your belt and are comfortable reading charts, this project shouldn’t be hard, but that doesn’t mean it’s fast. But lots of great things take time, and that’s never stopped us before, right?

You can get a copy of this pattern from Monstra & Mirabilia on Ravelry.

[Photo: Monstra & Mirabilia ]

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