So thrilled to be doing another test knit for the talented Irene Lin. Absolutely LOVE her style!

Cotton Kings has discontinued this yarn under the name “Twirls Pastello.” They now call it “Sultan Pastello.” They still offer this coloryway under the new label.

I really like this yarn which is an unusual 4-strand without any twist. But if you don’t like splitty yarn, don’t buy this. I’m not having any trouble knitting with it. You just have to be careful which does tend to slow down the knitting a bit. (You won’t be able to knit without looking.) I knit on the loose side, so it’s not much of a problem for me. With the size 4 US needles, it makes a very drapey fabric which is what I wanted for this extremely loose style. If you don’t like splitty, untwined yarn like this, there’s “Twirls Deluxe” which is twined (now called “Sultan Deluxe“), but it costs twice as much. The latter does have a bit more yardage than the untwined Twirls yarn, and it frequently goes on sale at Hobbii.com. If you like the untwined yarn, it also comes in darker shades called “Azalea.” Unlike the yarn I used by Cotton Kings (100% cotton), the Azalea yarn is 52% cotton and 48% acrylic, and is made by another yarn manufacturer.

Although I purchased the Twirls Pastello yarn very recently, when I went to look for it again in July 2021, it was no longer available at hobbii.com. Instead, they have another more expensive untwined yarn called “Dahlia” which is identical in weight and also 100% cotton. The problem is that most of the colors available are not monochromatic (my preference). Most of the Dahlia color options have abrupt color changes which I don’t like such as:

https://hobbii.com/product/search?search=dahlia

The Dahlia Mixo is nice, but costs considerably more.

I inquired as to when the Twirls Pastello would be available again and received the following reply from a Hobbii rep on 7/23/21:

“Unfortunately, the product is now discontinued. Please keep an eye out for our new product Sultan It will be a 100% cotton, 1000m (1094yrds) cake.The release date is not confirmed yet, but its launch will be announced on our social media channels and in our newsletter.”

I was able to get pretty close to row gauge with these needles and this yarn. However, my stitch gauge was way off from that indicated in the pattern. Therefore, I had to choose a much larger size than what I’d normally choose. This design is supposed to be worn with 8 - 10 inches of positive ease anyway. The yarn is 100% cotton, so it’s going to shrink (mostly in length) which is another reason that I added a couple of extra rounds every now and then in the yoke area.

Although my top only took a little over one ball of yarn, you’d need to buy 2 balls anyway, to achieve a color effect like mine. My entire top is knitted with only one strand of yarn at a time. I first knitted (with one ball) all the way to where we put the sleeve stitches on holders. Then I joined the second ball of yarn after unwinding the 4 lightest shades and reserving a couple of them for later. (I unwound the 2nd ball to the exact same point where I was with the 1st ball before joining. Note the 4 small “reserved” balls in a photo at left. Two of them were used to finish the sleeves.) From this point until the bottom edge, I alternated the two balls every other round - thus doubling the length between color changes. If I made this again, I would start alternating balls of yarn right after the twisted stitches where the gathers/major increasing starts. And I’d make sure that a color/shade change occurred there rather than later when we put the sleeve stitches on holders.

After putting the sleeves on holders, I changed my BOR marker to the right SIDE of the garment. This is because I started switching balls of yarn every other round. And no matter how careful you are in doing this, you’ll be able to see a “row” of stitches where you change balls. It’s much less noticeable to do this under an arm than at the center back of the garment.

Before starting the sleeves, I took the reserved lighter peachy shades and divided up the slight color changes into separate portions. Then I separated each of these slightly different shades into two equal portions - one for each sleeve. I ended up using only a couple of the slightly darker peachy shades to finish off each sleeve. Try to match the color (with the reserved yarn) when you resume work on the sleeves.

I have enough of the darkest (center shades) of the yarn left over to easily knit a tank top or a baby garment. My Fiore Top wasn’t long enough to use any of the two darkest shades contained in this yarn.

The decorative stitches at the bottom of the yoke form tiny eyelet holes. I threaded a very narrow satin ribbon (1/8” wide) through these holes which adds an additional feminine touch. I secured the ribbon with a little bow at right front near the sleeve.

Measurements:

Although I followed instructions for the largest size, my top came out about the same size as the measurements indicated for the 4th size because my yarn was thinner and my needles were therefore smaller. It fits me perfectly, with a generous amount of ease which was intended for this design.

Bottom circumference: 58.4” / 148 cm

Length from underarm to bottom: 12.5” / 31.8 cm (12” + .5” eyelets & i-cord bind-off)

Sleeve length: 3” / 7.6 cm from underarm (2.5” + .5” eyelets & i-cord bind-off)

How to do a 3-stitch i-cord bind-off

Test Knit for Irene Lin.