The brocade-like stranded pattern featuring the national flowers of England, Scotland and Ireland didn't spring from any particularly patriotic feeling of mine - anyway, where are the Welsh daffodils? - but was inspired by the pretty 1920s frosted glass in our bathroom door! :-)

This feminine top has - apart from the two short shoulder seams - a seamless construction and is worked in modules, from the top down.
It sports very slender square indented, slightly flared, extra long sleeves (shorten as desired), a flattering picot hem around the square neck neatened with chain crochet (see this great tutorial by the fantastic Alina Schneider) and small godets for some extra flare around the hemline, which can be embellished with beads if desired.

In the sample, the jewel tone background colours fade subtly one into the next, while a light long-print is used for contrast, but the piece would look equally good in solid colours - naturals, pastels or even a simple black and white.

While not exactly difficult, I’d still say this is a pattern for the experienced knitter: the stranded pattern (a large part of which is worked flat) is non-symmetrical and has large repeats. You will need to catch floats every two or three stitches as colour stretches are up to 21 stitches long. On the other hand, because of the modular construction, there are no massively long rows.

Find more info and help here.

All major parts of the garment are charted. Please note that while there are also written instructions, the stitch pattern is not written out line by line.

You will need:

• approx. 2,000 / 2,300 / 2,500 m (2,190 / 2,510 / 2,730 yd) of fingering weight yarn - a little more than half of this amount should be background colour, the remaining yardage contrasting colour. Of the original yarns (see above), for the Size L sample, I used 100 g Petrol and 50 g each of Wine, Blackberry, Bordeaux, Seaweed, Smaragd, Greyish and Marine (Classic Wool), as well as 200 g of Rose Mist Long Print and 50 g of Forest Long Print (Fabel).
• 3 mm (US 2 1⁄2) circular needle, 80 cm or longer, or size to get correct tension
• 2 mm (US 0) circular needle, 80 cm or longer, or 1 mm smaller than main circular needle
• 3 mm (US 2 1⁄2) double-pointed needles, or same size as main circular needle (instead, circular needle can be used with magic loop technique)
• stitch markers (or bits of waste yarn)
• 3.25 or 3.5 mm crocheting hook
• tapestry needle, scissors
• pins or sewing needle and basting thread
• optional: small beads in matching colours, fine sewing needle, sewing thread

Skilful and artistic tester emeania decided to add another beaded detail to the neckline. She knitted the beads into the picots as she went. You can find her instructions for this here.

Photographed at Llanthony Priory and the Skirrid Mountain Inn. A big thank you to my lovely friend Sonya for modelling.

Ab sofort auch auf Deutsch erhältlich!