Summer Ella Top
When you love a pattern but not the yarn
Every time the weather warms up I realize I don’t have nearly enough summer knits in my wardrobe. I always get hung up on the fiber content — either it’s too rough or heavy, or somehow knits up looking messy. While perusing a local yarn store, I was recommended to give Juniper Moon Farm’s Zooey a try and decided to buy some on a whim. No pattern or plan, I grabbed 3 balls in the colorway Bayleaf and was on my way.
About the Yarn
Juniper Moon Farm Zooey is a DK weight blend of 60% Cotton and 40% Linen weighing in at 100g/284 yards
Do you ever feel like you get influenced to buy something and immediately you’re not sure why you bought it? I kind of felt that way with this yarn. I’ve heard many, MANY great reviews about this yarn, but once I had it home with me it just felt like a compromise. I decided to go in with an open mind and went on the hunt for a good summer top.
I stumbled upon the Summer Ella top while scrolling through instagram and immediately fell in love with the yoke design. The pattern calls for a worsted weight yarn, but Zooey is on the thicker side of a DK and I got gauge with no problem.
Summer Ella Yoke
The lace yoke detail on this summer top is stunning and knits up in no time.
I thoroughly enjoyed this pattern and can’t recommend it enough. Unfortunately the yarn experience wasn’t as positive, and left me with a lot of wrist pain (probably due to the linen content). I also felt like it looked pretty messy and hoped blocking it would clean it up a bit, but post-blocking I still wasn’t in love with the look. You can also see a tiny bit of diagonal pooling which wasn’t really evident until the project was complete.
Final Takeaways
This pattern is truly beautiful and I’m proud to wear this top, but the yarn choice isn’t for me. To be honest, it feels heavy and slightly messy. Part of the heaviness is of course due to a summer top being knit in a worsted/DK weight yarn, but the yarn doesn’t feel as light as I would hope for something meant for warm weather. I would knit this pattern again for sure, but with a very different yarn.
For more information, check out my Ravelry page.
