Petal Halter

Completed: May 2009

Pattern: Petal Halter, Interweave Knit Spring 2009, by Olga Buraya-Kefelian

Yarn: Louisa Harding Merletto (46% Viscose rayon, 34% Nylon, 20% Linen), 98yd/50g, 2 x #1, 2 x #2, 2 x #12

Notes: To start, I used a more standard provisional cast on, rather than the Eastern method.
The pattern tells you to knit each petal until the garter ridge edge is a certain length. Well, rather than calculating it out using my row gauge as I should have done, I measured the unblocked, unstretched garter edge. You guessed it-–I ended up with a set of petals that were too long once blocked. Luckily, I had started with the bottom tier of petals and pieced it together as I went along, so I discovered my mistake after the first 2 petals. I then realized I could make the 2 remaining petal tiers progressively smaller, so I did not have to frog anything.

Instead of leaving live stitches on each petal, I passed the stitches over one another–like binding off. For me, this made it a little easier to sew them together and made the seams have less gape. The sewing was not complicated, but keeping everything properly aligned in such slippery fabric and creative geometry required a lot of safety pins for basting.

Rather than making the original straps, I decided to make it a strappy halter. The cord is formed by casting on a whole bunch of stitches, and then casting off. I sewed the cord to the “points” on the front and back. Luckily, my head fit through the opening, but if it had not, I would have left more cording to be able to tie it at the side of the neck.


I like this top, and the construction was fun and interesting. I was nervous about it the whole way because I usually try things on as I go along, and this was hard to do. In the end, though, it worked out well enough. I probably should have cast on more stitches to make each petal wider (and then made adjustments so they’d still be the same length as the original). That would have allowed the top as a whole to be a bit longer. I can’t really wear this with my low-cut jeans without showing a little wedge of belly.


Because I used different colors, I had to buy more total yarn: 2 skeins of each color. I suspect that if I had done the straps as directed, I might have needed a 3rd skein of the top color. The yarn has a pretty nice drape and sheen. However, it’s just a bit scratchy, and it was really splitty to work with.