Ever since I noticed how well boat necks fit me, I have been paying attention to boat neck tops in tv and film, and when I was rewatching Legally Blonde for the 20th time the other day, I fell in love with a striped blue-greenish top that Elle Woods is wearing while studying for the LSATS. She sits on the floor reading a book and wears jeans and a belt and has loose hair. sYou can check out the scene here.
To make this top – follow Helena top
How to make those wavy stitches
What I love so much about this top is that you can’t really crochet anything wrong per say – just follow the pattern for Helena top, make the foundation in dc and then start switching between hdc and dc. When you get to the next row either make hdc into hdc (look at the row below you whether it’s a small or big stitch), dc into dc OR do the opposite and make hdc into dc and dc into hdc. One will make the row look kinda crooked and the other make it look wavy – I did a bit of both and even just switched it up on one row – this means that you don’t have to think much, you can just kinda crohet whatever – make 10 hdc after each other then make 1 dc, 1 hdc, 1 hdc, 1 dc – like just do it completely random if you want.
How to always make stripes look good
The same goes for the stripes, yarn weights and colors – I chose beige, two shades of green, silver (that looks blue when paired with these colors!) and some sparkly yarn that I only crocheted in hdc (simply because I didn’t have a lot of it and wanted to save some). You can go for fine/sport like I did but with the hook size you can also use worsted or even bulky yarn – it’ll work great as well and give even more unique texture and enhance the wavy look even more. Especially if you use some sparkly bouclé yarn as I did, it makes if look really unique.
Again, you can just mix the stripes at random and even just leave the yarn end at the beginning of the row and pick it up later, as you work in the round. I like to generally always add a neutral color between each color change, but sometimes I have switched it up and made two shades of green after each other – this works best with similar colors, if I was using contrast colors I would have definitely seperated them with a beige or silver color.
Have fun with it!
Play around and have fun, this is the most unique top made from such a simple pattern. The pattern comes in three sizes but you can easily size it up, by just adding more stitches and rows – and try it on as you go. I made it in size S, the sizes are made to be on the bigger side, or at least make the top fit more loosely, which I like with this one, because the stitches are see-through.
You can wear a top under, or even just sew a piece of fabric on the inside to cover the breast area if you want (or wear a neutral colored bra).
I think this top will look so good with jeans but also a midi skirt.