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The lace-pattern of the hem and deep neckline of this relaxed and elegant summertop looks like the tail of a swallow. As the photos are shot in France I wanted to name my pattern by the French word of the swallow: Hirondelle. This is what I had decided upon before going to France - and to my great pleasure I had the adventure of seeing large groups of Hirondelles flying outside my terrasse every evening:)

Construction The pattern is worked bottom up and is completely seamless. You work the lower body in the round, starting from the wave-pattern, followed by the rib-pattern. Waist-shaping is created on the sides (optional). At underarms work is split for upper back/upper front and work is continued in separate pieces. Sts are cast on for the arm openings and the neck-edging is worked from RS in the round.

Fit and sizes
The top could be worn with the wave-patterned neck edging above or below the shoulders (or one up, one down as it happened to be in the pictures:)). The nature of the rib-pattern is VERY elastic, which means that each size covers several sizes up/down. The size-table below is approximate, and worked to gauge. Choose size depending on the fit you desire.
X-small 31.5”. Covers sizes 30 - 34
Small 36”. Covers sizes 34 - 38
Medium 40”. Covers sizes 38 - 42”
Large 45”. Covers sizes 43 - 47”
X-Large 49.5”. Covers sizes 48 - 51”.

Gauge 28 sts = 10cm/4” - washed and lightly blocked, measured over rib-pattern k3, p1. T

Materials
I used the light fingering weight yarn “Colori” from BC garn to work the top. This yarn comes in skeins of 50gr/1.75oz and 250m/273m. You will need 3/4/4/5/5 skeins of this specific yarn to work the top.
You will need a circular needle 3mm/US2.5 for the lower body and the neck-edging. You can use the same needle, or straight needles, 3mm/US2.5 to work the upper back/upper front. You need a crochet hook 2.5mm to work the armhole edges.
You could work the top in a solid color only, or (as I came to think about later) 2 - 3 colors for the lace-pattern (working each wave in contrasting colors)Wouldn’t it be lovely with waves in black and white towards a black or white body?

The pattern
The wave-pattern is written out round by round (please observe that the pattern is not charted). All necessary stitch-counts are given. All measurements are in cm’s as well as inches.
Abbreviations used are: k, p, yo, ssk, k2tog, sl1k2togpsso, m1l, m1r.
There are no difficult sts or techniques involved.