Eyelet and Mesh Sweaters to Keep Cool in Summer

Adding eyelets to a project is a great way to make it more wearable in the summer, and these mesh and eyelet sweater patterns are perfect for summer (and beyond!) for layering.

The Inez Summer Sweater from Happy Love Co combines eyelets and dropped stitches (along with some garter and stockinette) to make a casual and fun summer sweater. The pattern is one size (56 inches or 142.24 cm) around, and is meant to be worn oversized. But it’s an easy enough pattern you could alter it to suit you without too much difficulty. It calls for worsted weight cotton yarn.

Another fun project using dropped stitches in the Stella Blouse from Thelma Steimann. It calls for a fingering weight silk yarn and is worked on larger than expected needles and also uses dropped stitches. The pattern includes eight sizes, with a bust circumference ranging from 33.5 to 51.5 inches, or 85-131 cm. You can grab a copy on Ravelry.

The Design Studio Knits has a nice summer cotton tee that uses worsted weight yarn worked on larger needles so it has a mesh effect while still being worked in stockinette stitch. It’s worked in one piece and is another one size pattern, meant to fit an actual chest measurement ranging from 34 to 46 inches (that’s 86 to 117 cm).

A similar look with a cropped shape and four available sizes comes from A Box of Twine. This one is a DK weight yarn knit on large needles and still has an oversized look (for instance the size small is 42 inches/106.68 cm at the bust). It’s worked flat so this is a great one for beginners.

If you want something a little more structured, try the Pip Cardigan from Yoko Johnston. This sport weight cardigan has an allover eyelet pattern and options to close with a zipper or buttons. It’s worked from the top down and has six size options. This one is also oversized, with finished measurements ranging from 51.5 to 64.5 inches, or 131 to 164 cm). You can find this one on Ravelry.

Or check out Endlessly by Amy Gunderson, a free pattern from Knitty. This pullover uses a cable and lace pattern that is easy to knit and to wear. It uses DK weight yarn and has nine size options. The chest measurement ranges from 34.75 to 66.75 inches, or 88.5 to 169.5 cm, and is meant to be worn with a little positive ease.

For the past few years I’ve taken part in a Christmas in July blog hop that encourages people to get a jump on their making for holiday gifts.

I love to use yarn I already have for these projects in the hope that people will consider what they already have that they can use to make projects for themselves or to give as gifts.

This year it was a couple of knit baskets made using partial balls of yarn left in my stash from other projects.

They use the same basic pattern but the first one is made with two colors of bulky yarn, and the second used two strands of worsted weight yarn held together, which made the gauge about the same, but I cast on fewer stitches to make a smaller version.

The bottom of the basket is square, though you can make them rectangular if you’d rather. Then I just knit up the sides in rounds until I was about to run out of yarn. This gave both baskets rather short sides — maybe more like a tray than a basket — but you can keep knitting as long as you like to make the sides of your basket as tall as you want.

They’re worked in seed stitch, which keeps the edges from curling and adds a nice texture to the baskets.

Of course this also allows you to use even more odd balls from your stash. I’d love to make a big one someday combining lots of different yarn. I mean, I’d probably use it to store more yarn, but that’s a fine thing to do.

As it is, these little trays are great for sitting on your desk or bedside table to hold little things that always seem to appear there. I like to use one to hold the supplies for whatever project I’m working on, things like little scissors, my tape measure, a crochet hook, etc.

And they would make good gifts on their own or as a container to hold some other goodies if you like.

You can find the free pattern for these stash busting baskets over at Our Daily Craft.

Have you read?