Thrilled to be testing another cute summer top for Svetlana. Love her style! My last test for her was this fantastic top which was a gift for my niece, Sawyer.

This Stella Top is a bottom-up design. I did a tubular cast-on to start as shown in this video. The shape of the neckline and armholes is square. However, these right angles are greatly softened by the i-cord edging. I found the fit of this design to be excellent. The ribbing provides both visual interest and adds natural shaping that conforms to whatever your body shape. So there is no need for bust darts or decreasing / increasing. Negative ease is recommended for this design. Mine has about 4 inches of negative ease.

This is not a fast project due to the fact that the entire body is done in a ribbing pattern (16-stitch repeat). However, it’s well worth the time invested. I completed mine in about a week, and I still work full-time. The pattern gives the option of doing the body in twisted rib (p1, k1, p1 stitches) which would make this top even more form fitting. However, I chose to not twist any stitches.

What I did differently:

• The designer’s sample is cropped, but I made mine longer. Therefore, I made the bottom ribbed band proportionally longer - about 2” wide after blocking. My garment length from underarm (before i-cord and blocking) = 13.5” (34 cm)

• I did not do any twisted stitches which is an option in this pattern. However, I think that twisted stitches would look very good, though it takes even longer. Some of the other testers just twisted the knit stitches (not the purl stitches). It was not clear to me whether the designer’s sample had any twisted stitches or not.

• Markers are not really necessary with this ribbing stitch pattern once you establish the “Set-up round”. However, since my yarn color is fairly dark, I found it to be very helpful to place markers every 16 stitches. My eyes could not always see clearly whether the stitch was supposed to be a knit or purl. So placing the markers gave me some guidance in this regard.

• Test pattern said to knit “10 rows” more for the front once you pass the underarm point. I did not find this adequate to cover my boobs (which are smallish), so I knit 14 rows beyond the underarm point before starting the individual part of the straps. How many extra rows to knit for the front is going to depend on your row gauge length and your bust size. However, I think that knitting 10 additional rows for the front is only going to be adequate for the smallest sizes and those who have smaller busts. And if you’re tall like me, you’re definitely going to need to knit more than 10 additional rows for the top of the front to come up high enough to cover boobs.

• Test pattern had the top of the back even with the underarm level. I was worried that my bra might show, so I knitted an additional 6 rows beyond the underarm point before starting the individual part of the straps.

• Test pattern said to make the straps 44 rows long for both front and back. This is a good starting point. However, the back straps are going to be longer than the front because the front is higher than the back. This is assuming that you want the strap “seam” to be at the top of the shoulder as it normally is.

My strap lengths are as follows:

Front straps - 31 rows

Back straps - 39 rows

• I grafted my straps together like this. It will not look flawless because the rib stitch sequence is different on each strap. However, it will look neat and will be very sturdy.

• Test pattern gave the number of stitches to pick up for the i-cord around armholes and neckline. But this is going to vary depending on a number of factors. Since I did an applied i-cord (rather than picking up all the stitches at once), I used the following pick-up ratios:

1:1 - All live stitches
4 out of every 5 rows - Armholes and neckline (other than live stitches)

I recommend starting the armhole i-cord centered under the arms and the neckline i-cord on top of one of the shoulders. That way, the grafting will be less noticeable.

Needles used:

I used sizze 2 US needles (2.75 mm) for the entire top, including size 2 US DPNs for the applied i-cord. I did my i-cord edging like this (with the provisional cast-on of the 3 initial stitches).. Note that with this method, you pick up all the stitches from the wrong side of the work. It will look good on both sides, but even better on the right side.

Weight of finished top: 6.1 oz.

Stitch counts for my size 3:

Front - 44
Back - 44
Each strap - 16
Each underarm - 36
Total sts all around - 224

Measurements before blocking:

Circumference measurements are per pattern.

Length from underarm to bottom edge - 13.5” (not including the i-cord trim)

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