I have been busy busy this past month, working on the finishing touches of not just one, but two secret patterns (will post a second blog post about the other not so secret anymore project shortly)! :oD This past "weekend" (May 17-21) marks the 12th annual LYS Tour of the North Puget Sound! The theme of this year's event was "Stitch Two Together" and I had a lot of fun working on the pattern for The Fiber Gallery!

Meet Rosencrantz! Boat neck, fast knit, split hem... and all of it could be knit up within just a few days, easily! The only techniques needed are: knits, purls, picking up sts, and seaming. Yes, seamed. You could easily switch this to knitted in the round, if desired, but the seaming does allow you to play around with the depth of the underarm and neckline a lot more, in addition, the seamed sides means you can line up your stripes much easier (no jog on one side!).

Some actual details: Rosencrantz uses three different colors of a sport weight yarn. The suggested yarn is United (55% Wool, 45% Cotton; 251 yards / 50 grams). I love this super fun gradient effect here, and, just like many of my other knits, this top is more complicated appearing than it actually is knit. :oD This top is definitely first garment worthy, for anyone feeling intimidated with knitting a top.

Pictured here, Rosencrantz is worn with roughly 2" of negative ease across the full bust (meaning, the shirt is a smaller circumference around than my bust is by about 2"). I am recommending choosing a size of Rosencrantz that is somewhere between negative 2" (like how I'm wearing it) and positive 2" (where the shirt is a larger circumference at the bust than your fullest part of the bust). If you are interested in seeing what that would look like, take a look at the following picture!

Cory is wearing her Guildenstern with 2" of positive ease. You can see how that also changes how the sleeveless appearance, and creates a bit of a cap sleeve. If you decide to knit up a Rosencrantz with positive ease, you will also get those cute cap sleeves as well! (or check out my awesome friend's Rosencrantz done with 2" of positive ease, and a cool beachy ombre effect!!)

Cory and I had *so much fun* designing these sweet tees; our own variations on the same theme. We were very pleased that the year we decided to do a collaboration the theme was "Stitch Two Together". It was very appropriate and fitting (as are the names: great friends and great goofs those Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are!)... so much so that we may have hammed it up a bit for the photo shoot! Here are some of my favorite outtakes below!