Delighted to be testing for the fabulous designer, Heidi Kaiser of Germany. Love her clean and classic lines as well as the top-down, seamless construction. Her designs are flattering to any body type with a wide range of sizes. Heidi is very thoughtful and clever with her construction methods. I love the fact that the neckline and armholes are finished with a neat i-cord edging as the garment is knitted back and forth on the top before joining to work in the round.

I followed the pattern to the letter for my size S. Didn’t change a thing. If I match stitch gauge, my row gauge is usually longer as was the case with this project. However, after washing the top and throwing in a warm dryer, the row gauge was perfect - one of the many reasons I love knitting with and wearing 100% cotton yarn. Lots of ventilation holes in this pullover - perfectly air conditioned for our hot summer and fall days.

There are some periodic decreases under the arms after joining front to back. But once these are finished, my stitch count for the body all the way to the bottom was 244 sts (122 sts each front and back). This results in the necessary positive ease with this type of dropped sleeve construction.

When completed, I noticed that the back was two inches longer than the front when garment is worn. This was not the designer’s intention, so perhaps it’s the cotton yarn I used or the many eyelet holes in back causing it to stretch more. I’m not sure, but if I make this again, I will probably decrease the number of short rows in the upper back in order to help make the bottom edge even all the way around. Also, I might make a cropped version of this pullover for myself with only two rows of eyelets in the upper back (as in the front). The deep V of the eyelets in the back dictate that this pullover be fairly long for the proportions to look right. I may also do provisional cast on for both shoulders although picking up stitches in this area does give structure to this top if you don’t have wide shoulders as I do. Another change I would make if I knit this again would be to make the bottom ribbing a little bit longer - maybe 1.5” because that too shrank in the dryer a little bit.

I ran out of yarn even though I started with the amount of yarn recommended in the pattern for my size. Had to order more of this yarn from Hobbii. Fortunately, I could only see a VERY slight difference in the two dye lots. I don’t think anyone will notice any difference.

Needles used:

Size 2.5 US for entire top. Normal bind-off with size 2 US needle.

Weight of finished garment = 8.5 oz (241 grams)

Garment measurements before blocking:

Length from underarm to bottom edge = 15”

Length from cast-on neck edge to bottom edge = 24”

Garment measurements after shrinking in a warm dryer:

Length from underarm to bottom edge = 14”

Length from cast-on neck edge (CB) to bottom = 23” (back) and 22” (front). However, gravity causes the back to stretch more when the garment is worn due to all the eyelets in back.

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