I love the mix of tailored stripes with a feminine picot edging, an unusual combination.

Neckline:

1. I made the neckline of this just a little lower so it wouldn’t hug the neck so closely. It would also allow a shirt or top worn underneath to peek out more neatly at the neck. I started the front neckline shaping when the front was 14 rows shorter than the back, rather than 10 rows. I then shaped as in the pattern, and then worked straight for a further 9 rows instead of 5.

2. When picking up stitches for the neckband I picked up 13 stitches instead of 10 on both the right and left front neck, because of the slightly deeper neck (4 rows deeper).

3. For the neckline ribbing I also worked two fewer rows in my main colour, as I think the neckband otherwise might look a little high (so a total of 4 rows in lime instead of 6, 2 in aqua, then the picot cast-off).

4. Size 4.00mm needles are specified for the ribbing and picot edging on the neck. I was tempted to use 3.75 or 3.5 needles in order to have it sit more neatly, but was worried that this might cause a getting-the-head-through-the-neck problem. The picot edging was a little floppy at the cast-off though, so I re-did the picot cast-off using 3.5mm needles and it looked nicer. Next time I think I WILL use slightly smaller needles for the neck band, as having made the neckline lower it means there is more head room anyway.

Warning about the bottom ribbing:
The front and back are supposed to be worked identically (till neckline height), which means that, for both, the bottom ribbing starts with k4 and ends with k4. Once you come to stitch the side seams you then find you have 8 knits in the rib at each side seam. (See 4th photo, though the colour in that one isn’t accurate.) If you were to do the back ribbing as p4, k4, to last 4 sts, p4, and the front as the pattern has it, you wouldn’t break the continuity of the 4 x 4 rib when the garment is seamed. It surprises me that a pattern could get through to publication with something as fixable as this obvious in the knitted product. It’s really bugging my eye for detail!

I was undecided about whether to add a flower, and didn’t make it as in the pattern - I wanted something a little smaller and simpler. I based the flower on one in a Sirdar pattern, with a couple of tweaks, but might yet remove it.

Cashsoft is a lovely yarn, a pleasure to knit with, one of my favourites.