Hi everyone! I released Cosmic Wonder top pattern, and this post is all about this design and the yarn I used (self and not self promotion).
It is a V-neck summer top with kimono-inspired clean straight lines enhanced with sparkling beads.
This top is knit with Nomad noos’ Peace and Love Silk. In case you don’t know this brand yet, it’s in a word, a “sustainable and fair trade” knitting yarn brand, from sourcing to production. They collect their wool (sheep, yak, camel) from animals raised by nomadic herders in Mongol that respect their lands. Their fibers are washed in an ecological way and sent to Nepal. They are spun by hand by Nepalese people (mostly women) who have been trained and are now qualified – the brand brings them this way skill and regular decent incomes to improve their life. You may probably know that I have already had an honor to create a shawl pattern My Zen garden – Fukinsei – with their Dry Desert Camel (the shawl you see when you access my site 🙂 ).
Peace and Love Silk yarn is made from “non-violent” silk in that cocoons are gathered after the moths leave them. It has admittedly less luster than traditional silk, but it still has silk’s characteristics such as softness, breathability and suppleness. The top is designed to enjoy these qualities: it is to be worn next to your skin, with a comfortable amount of ease for a good drape.
And to enhance this precious quality of silk and inspired by the yarn’s color name, I added (Japanese of course!) seed beads.
The top is worked from the top down, starting with the back. Then stitches are picked up along the shoulder for the fronts that are worked with their borders and (optional) beads are inserted as you go (with stringing method explained in this tutorial). Once the back and front are joined, the lower body is worked in the round until you divide it into two for a split hem. The hem as well as the armhole borders are also adorned with beads.
The upper part has kimono-inspired clean straight lines laid flat as well as on you, produced by the combinations of increases and decreases as well as short rows. The lower body is on the contrary worked straight in the round, which allows you to adjust the length as you wish.
The pattern is available on my website (English only) and on Ravelry (English & French bundle at a higher price), with a 15% launching discount on both sites until June the 3rd. Don’t miss it!
