Rival Tee Pattern Review

Now that I’ve had a chance to wear my finished Rival Tee—to a 7 hour shift on a 93 degree day, no less—I finally feel ready to review the pattern.

I originally found this pattern scrolling through Ravelry and I knew pretty much immediately that I wanted to make it. It just felt different from a lot of the other summer knits I was seeing. The saddle shoulders with ribbing that continues down the sleeves, paired with the contrasting marled body, give it a sport/vintage/ringer-tee type feel to it. It seemed like an interesting way to make myself a black and white project that wasn’t just stripes.

There are currently only 14 projects on Ravelry for this pattern, and mid-project I felt like I was losing my mind. Because most of them just say that the pattern was clear and easy to follow, or simply don’t mention any qualms. That’s why I’m writing this—first to mention my qualms and then to acknowledge what I liked about this pattern, and to just give the full scope of what to expect with this pattern.

The reason I felt like I was losing my mind mid-project is that only one Ravelry post mentions the very real mistake in this pattern. In the front panel pickup instructions, the pattern tells you to begin the left front at the armhole edge and the right front at the neck edge. Those two starting points are wrong: the left front should begin at the neck edge, and the right front should begin at the armhole edge. I spent way too long trying to figure out whether the issue was the starting edge or the fact that it said to pick up with the RS facing. 

Another thing I think is worth mentioning is the yardage. The recommended yarn is Tynn Line by Sandnes Garn and the recommended amount for my size specifically is 150g of the main color and 100g of the contrasting color. I did the math wrong, or rather didn’t do any math when buying my skeins of CoBaSi. I just bought it gram for gram, not realizing that my skeins had fewer yards. So I ended up having to buy another skein of the main color, and that part is on me. But after finishing the tee, I still was surprised by how little I had left of my black skein. After doing the math, I realized I still used about 100 yards more of the main color than the pattern calls for. So even if I bought the correct yardage from the start, I still would have come up short. Maybe some of that comes down to my yarn substitution, but either way, I wish I’d had more yarn to work with. Between the tight estimates and how cropped the recommended body length is, I’d personally buy an extra skein of both colors next time.

My last qualm with this pattern was the sleeve pickup instructions. The pattern first tells you to place the live shoulder stitches on the 2.25mm needles, then tells you how many stitches to pick up around without ever saying to switch the needles, before finally introducing the 4mm needles for the short rows. To me, that didn’t make much sense because it would mean leaving the entire sleeve sitting on the smaller needles while gradually working the short rows onto the larger needles. I ended up picking up the sleeves with the 4mm needles instead, but I was never completely sure if that was the intended construction or if I was just interpreting the wording differently.

With all my complaints out of the way, I don’t want this review to come across more negatively than I actually feel about the pattern.

I really love how the finished tee turned out. I think it fits incredibly well, especially through the neckline and sleeves. Honestly, the biggest compliment I could give this tee is that through a 7 hour shift on a 93 degree day, I barely noticed it on my body. I really love how nicely my folded neckline lays and the fact that I didn’t need to add knitting elastic to help it do so. I think the single-stranded sleeve cuffs and neckline, while a little tedious to do, are some of the smartest construction details in the pattern. 

I love the finished garment enough that I would still recommend this pattern despite all my complaints. Especially to people reading this post who now know exactly what to expect. Would I make it again? No, I think one is enough, but I’m really glad I have this one in my closet now.