Cute design and easy to make. I’ve always been fond of the feather-and-fan stitch. There are so many variations of this stitch. See this other project that I made this year. I really like this 100% cotton yarn. It’s plied with two shades of green and two shades of lilac, resulting in an overall cool green effect.

The gauge listed above is the pattern gauge - not my gauge. I’m intentionally using finer yarn and smaller needles so that this will fit my young grandniece. I used the second size in the pattern and made a few additional changes to achieve the smaller size. I made each strap 1.625” long (3.8 cm) or 9 ridges/18 rows. Keep in mind that the straps will stretch a lot when all the weight of the body is added and after blocking.

Needles used:

Size 2 US (2.75 mm) Milgard - Straps only

Size 3 US Susan Bates - Everything else

What I did differently:

• Followed the instructions exactly except that I did 7 garter stitches at each side instead of 5. In order to end up with the 4 extra stitches, on the 4th row of Chart A.1, I increased the 4 sts evenly spaced.

• I did a few more rounds of garter stitch ridges under the arms (5 ridges/10 rounds) to equal the extra width on the sides and to have a little more support for all the lace in the body.

• I eliminated some of the chart repeats since this was for a child. I only did 1 repeat for each of the charts except for the last chart which I did two times. I did not do Chart A.2 because I wanted a much shorter armhole depth. I just did charts A.1 and then skipped to Chart A.3 which is the first complete round under the arms after completing all the garter stitch.

• I grafted the shoulder straps together but the procedure is a bit different for garter stitch. I did it as in this video.

• After completing the last vertical chart repeat, I did 1 garter ridge (knit 1 round, purl 1 round) before binding off knitwise loosely (regular bind-off with size 3 US needle).

Measurements (See photos):

Underarm to underarm across - 16.5” (33” circumference)

Armhole depth - 6”

Strap length from top of shoulder (after blocking/stretching) - 2”

Lower skirt across when laid flat - 29”

Lower skirt circumference - 67”

Side length from underarm - 9”

Center front and back lengths - 13.5”

I’m giving the pattern only 4 stars because it only includes measurements in metric units which is not helpful for American knitters. It does not include American size knitting needles either. It’s a bit odd that the gauge is only given for stockinette stitch when there is zero stockinette stitch in this design. Also, Drops patterns try to cram all the information into a few pages. I had no problem whatsoever. However, it would be difficult for a beginner to correctly interpret what’s intended. The chart symbols are not conventional, but there’s a key, so it was clear to me what to do. Instagram: #canarybelletop

How to work kitchener graft in garter stitch