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The gorgeous Thistledown Top features dramatic cape-like sleeves and a delicate colorwork web; it’s simultaneously elegant and highly wearable. The stitches, reminiscent of knitting, are created with Tunisian crochet worked in continuous rounds. Merino/bamboo yarn gives this sweater incredible drape.

Difficulty Intermediate

Yarn Weight 2

Finished Size 30 ¼ (33 ¾, 37 ¾, 41 ¼, 45 ¼, 48 ¾)“ waist circumference. Sample shown measures 30 ¼”, modeled with 3 ¾“ positive ease.

Yarn Knit Picks Galileo (50% Merino wool, 50% viscose from bamboo; 131 yd 120 m/ 1 ¾ oz 50 g): #26103 Pearl (MC) and #26104 Gem (CC), 5 (6, 7, 8, 9, 10) balls each.

Hook Size 7 mm double-ended Tunisian hook, 12” cable. Adjust hook size if necessary to obtain correct gauge.

Notions Stitch markers (m); yarn needle.

Gauge 16 sts and 18 rnds = 4” in tks in the round, blocked.

For techniques you don’t know, please visit our online crochet glossary at www.interweave.com/go/IWCglossary

NOTES

• This top has a round yoke and is worked from the top down in one piece in continuous spiral rounds using the double-ended, circular Tunisian crochet technique.

• There are no floats in the colorwork. Instead, how the hook enters the stitch determines the color and texture.

• A Tunisian-crochet round consists of two passes: a right-side (RS)-facing forward pass (FwP), picking up loops in the main color (MC), and a wrong-side (WS)-facing pass to work loops off from the opposite end of the hook using the contrasting color (CC) unless otherwise noted.

• Work the FwP until the hook is either filled or cannot continue around curve, then turn the work to the WS and work the loops off from the opposite end of the hook until a few unworked loops remain on the hook, the n turn back to the RS to continue to work the FwP. Keep alternating between RS facing FwP and WS facing working off loops to complete a round.

• Move the marker (m) up as work progresses.