Men's Filet Crochet Polo Shirt, Cream, Handmade Cotton

A men's polo shirt crocheted by hand in cream cotton blend yarn, worked in filet crochet so the geometric pattern is built from open squares and filled blocks rather than printed on. It has a folded crochet collar, a three button placket, short sleeves and a small tag stitched at the hem. The first photograph shows the actual shirt on a hanger; the photograph on a model is a styled image. Filet crochet is a counted technique. The maker works from a grid and decides square by square whether to leave a hole or fill it, which means the pattern across the chest is structural: it is the fabric, not a decoration added to it. Get a square wrong and the motif is wrong, so a shirt like this is slow work. The openwork is the reason to buy it. A crocheted shirt sounds warm and this one is the opposite, because roughly half the surface is air. It suits heat, coast and holiday dressing, and it wears well over a plain vest if you would rather the openwork were not quite so open. There are two ways to buy it. The finished shirt in the photographs is one size, and the maker's flat measurements are on the size chart in the images: shirt length 73cm, chest width flat 60cm, which is about 120cm around, sleeve length 27cm, cuff width flat 20cm and armhole 25cm. Compare them against a shirt you already own. If that size will not suit you, choose made to measure, give your own body measurements, and the maker will crochet one to fit, which takes about ten days before dispatch. The yarn is 55% cotton and 45% acrylic. Wash by hand in cool water, do not wring it, and dry it flat and out of the sun so the shoulders keep their shape.