Lacey Lake Top

I was really into the idea of crocheting myself a pool/beach cover up for our Maui trip, so I did some looking around online for patterns. I ultimately decided on the Lacey Lake Top from Hands of Zeal since the pattern did not look complicated. I ended up making two versions: rainbow and black.

I made the rainbow version first using some leftover Caron Simply Soft Paints yarn in Rainbow Bright from another project (until I ran out and had to track down some more). The pattern calls for an F hook, so I attempted to start out by sizing up two hooks in my collection (which ended up being an I/5.5mm). I didn’t really like the way this looked, so I decided to switch back to the F hook and adjust by measurement. This worked out pretty well. I finished up the initial rectangle, but it was wanting to bunch up some and not stay stretched down to show of the mesh look. This is where my first lessons in crochet blocking came in. The top didn’t end up being quite as long as I wanted, but it still looked pretty great!

I decided to make a second version in black and do a bit more adjusting based off what I learned making the rainbow version. My tight crocheting made the mesh not look quite as open from top to bottom as the creator’s, so I adjusted from a chain 5 to a chain 7 to see if that would help. I was pleasantly surprised with how this adjustment turned out. I was also able to do fewer rows and the top was a bit longer than the first version after blocking.

Overall, I really liked this pattern. It was easy to follow, adjustable for my usual gauge problems, and the finished tops were just perfect while we were in Maui!