Hold onto Summer with the Hipster Top Knitting Pattern

As I write this, summer is winding down and kids are going back to school, but I know that in a lot of the Northern Hemisphere it will still be warm for a long time, and it’s probably already getting warmer in the Southern Hemisphere.

So it’s basically the perfect time for anyone to knit a tee shirt.

Especially when it’s one that’s as full of cute details as the Hipster Top by Joji Locatelli.

Inspired by the stripes and design details of the Hip Stripes Shawl (Ravelry link), the top has the same narrow stripes in two colors, and the fun lace detail has been added to the shoulders of the cap sleeves.

The tee begins with that little bit of crossed stitch lace and then is worked down in pieces until it is joined for working in the round at the underarm. It makes for a totally seamless construction so all you have to do when you’re done is weave in your ends (if you want; I promise I won’t tell if you don’t).

The V-neck makes it easy and comfortable to wear, and the shirt is made with a light fingering weight yarn that’s a blend of yak and cotton, which sounds super interesting.

The pattern comes in 10 sizes, meant to fit a bust circumference ranging from 30 to 64 inches (76.2 to 162.5 cm), with positive ease of 2-4 inches (5-10 cm) built in.

This looks like a really easy pattern because once you get past that little bit of lace (there’s a video to help you along if you need it) it’s all stockinette down to the ribbing at the bottom of the top. And those little stripes are sure to make you knit this project at lightning speed because you’ll want to knit “just one more stripe!” all the time until it’s done. That’s just science.

You can find this pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Joji Locatelli]

More Summer Top Knitting Patterns to Finish Out the Season

Knit a Summer Top with a Textured Twist

Knit a Summer Top with a Little Frill

When I was looking around for free knitting patterns to share recently, I came across this fun leopard print wrap from Yarnspirations.

This fun bulky wrap gives you tons of practice with instarsia and makes a bold statement while keeping you warm. It’s rated for intermediate knitters and the design is charted but pretty easy to follow. And it’s only 50 rows and worked in bulky yarn, so it wouldn’t even take that long to knit. (You can grab the free pattern from Yarnspirations.)

So what’s the problem? The yarn that the pattern calls for has been discontinued, and it’s not a yarn that a substitute for immediately springs to mind.

The original yarn was Patons Alpaca Blend, a single ply bulky yarn that was a combination of acrylic, superwash wool, nylon and alpaca.

My first thought was Lion Brand Hue + Me, which is an acrylic and wool blend, with two plies instead of a single. It looks like it has the colors you would need to make this fun shawl.

But as I was thinking about it, I thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce you to YarnSub if you don’t already know about it. This website is a giant database of yarn that can consider the qualities of the yarn you want to substitute and offer potential substitutions.

It’s not only thinking about yarn weight, like I was, but also fiber content, number of plies, gauge and even the difference in yardage between one ball and another. It even looks at the price and can be filtered by your price range or preferences about fiber content (if, say, you’re sensitive or allergic to wool, for example, or don’t want to you acrylic).

When I plugged in Alpaca Blend, it gave me a lot of different options, though many of them were self-striping or multicolored, which wouldn’t work for this project, and I don’t see a way to filter for solid colors only.

Still, it’s a good tool to give you some ideas you might not know about or might have forgotten about, and it tells you how the new yarn is similar to the old one and how it differs, allowing you to make smarter choices when substituting yarns.

[Photo: Yarnspirations]

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