Joanna Polo Top - Knitting Pattern for Women in Debbie Bliss Piper

Joanna Polo Top – Knitting Pattern for Women in Debbie Bliss Piper

The Joanna Polo Top is a women's knitted top pattern designed by Debbie Bliss, worked in the designer's own Piper yarn. This is a downloadable PDF knitting pattern written in UK terminology with US terminology provided in brackets throughout, making it accessible to knitters on both sides of the Atlantic. It is rated as an intermediate difficulty project, making it well suited to knitters who are comfortable with basic shaping and finishing techniques but are ready to take on more structured garment construction.

What Is Being Made

The finished garment is a women's polo top — a classic, structured knitted top featuring a polo-style neckline. Polo tops in knitwear typically feature a raised, folded, or ribbed collar that sits close to the neck, giving the finished piece a neat, tailored appearance. This style is versatile enough for casual or smart-casual wear and is a popular choice for handknitters looking to create a wardrobe staple with a polished finish.

Construction Method

The Joanna Polo Top is constructed using a seamed, worked flat method. This means the individual pieces — typically a front, back, and sleeves or collar sections — are knitted flat on straight or circular needles and then sewn together using mattress stitch or a similar seaming technique. This traditional approach to garment construction gives the finished top excellent structure and shape retention, and is the preferred method for many classic knitwear designs.

• Worked flat: Each section is knitted back and forth in rows rather than in the round, producing a fabric with a clear right side and wrong side.
• Seamed construction: Finished pieces are joined together at the shoulders, sides, and any sleeve seams, creating a sturdy, well-defined garment silhouette.

Techniques Used

This pattern incorporates several key knitting techniques that place it firmly in the intermediate skill level category. Knitters working through this pattern will practise and apply the following:

• Buttonholes: The pattern includes worked buttonholes, which are a defining feature of the polo top's placket or neckline opening. Buttonholes require careful attention to placement and neatness, and typically involve casting off a small number of stitches on one row and casting them back on in the following row.
• Buttons: Corresponding buttons are attached to complete the fastening, adding a decorative as well as functional element to the finished top.
• Seaming: Joining knitted pieces neatly is an essential finishing skill. The seamed construction of this top gives knitters the opportunity to practise professional-quality finishing.
• Shaping: As a fitted garment, the Joanna Polo Top will involve increases and decreases to shape the body and neckline. The pattern references techniques including knit front and back (kfb), purl front and back (pfb), make one (m1), skpo, sk2togpo, and s2togkpo for precise shaping.
• Casting on and casting off: Standard and ribbed cast-off methods are referenced, including cast off in ribbing, which maintains the elasticity of rib sections such as the collar or cuffs.
• Pick up and knit / pick up and purl: These techniques are used to neatly add collar, neckband, or button band stitches along finished edges, a hallmark of polished garment finishing.

Stitches Used

The pattern draws on a range of stitch types to create texture and structure throughout the garment:

• Knit and purl stitches: The fundamental building blocks of all the fabric sections in this top.
• Garter stitch: Formed by knitting every row, garter stitch creates a ridged, reversible fabric often used for borders, hems, or decorative bands.
• Moss stitch (seed stitch): Created by alternating knit and purl stitches across the row and offsetting them on subsequent rows, moss stitch produces a textured, non-curling fabric that is frequently used for collars, button bands, and edgings in classic knitwear.