Pattern Focus: Navelli

Navelli was a lovely top to knit. I love combining colours in a project and I'm particularly thrilled with this combination. 

I'd originally bought all the colours from Lay Family Yarn. The original lighter skein that I wanted to use had a greener tone but I realised how perfect a match the Ephemera skein was from Mr B. It has touches of the burgundy in it and has a warmer tone too.

The coffee-coloured is Macchiato and the burgundy is Forager. Both are from Lay Family Yarn.  The base for all of them is 75% merino / 25% nylon  and 425m/100g.

These colours are a bit of a departure for me (in terms of what I normally wear) but I'm absolutely thrilled with it.

Can't be serious all the time. Can we? 

I worked the 5th size which gave me about 8" of positive ease. I didn't modify a huge amount in the pattern. My gauge was a little off 25 x 36 instead of 24 x 30; though it's a pattern where the sizing doesn't need to be hugely precise.

I used a larger needle on the stranded colourwork section.

To stop pooling or weird colour blocks, the main colour was striped helically in the body. There was a bit of an issue when I hit the front/back section. That part is worked flat and the two skeins of the main colour were quite different to one another. When I started striping every two rows instead of the one row on the body, it looked blatantly different to me. I ended up striping every row using a circular needle and just working from whichever end the working yarn was. I'm a lot happier with the finish now. You might spot the few rows near the armhole where it was pooling.

I did modify the sleeves slightly. I reduced the stitch count a bit on the sleeves and worked a purl ridge at the edge to give it a crisp clean look. On the inside of the turned hem, I used a smaller needle too.

This is one of those outfits that is completely reversible but I did want to keep the little bit of 2 row striping at the back when I put it on. I've been meaning for ages to get labels to add to my handknits. My inspiration for the labels was a little lacking but my husband (who has a brilliant sense of humour) came up with this one and I just had to go with it.