Knit Summer Tops with a Bit of Lace

This time of year I annually try to convince everyone that you can still knit and wear knit garments in the summer. One way to do that is knitting short sleeved or sleeveless shirts. But you can make it even cooler (and a little less plain) by adding a bit of lace.

Lace literally makes your projects lighter, but it also provides a bit of ventilation that makes your clothes more comfortable to wear. So let’s check out some knit tops with lace for summer knitting.

Live your cottagecore dreams with the Nostalgia Tee from Auguste Knit. This DK weight top is vintage inspired and includes an allover lace pattern on the front and sleeves and most of the back. It’s worked in one piece from the bottom up and is available in five sizes. You can find the pattern on Ravelry.

A more subtle design but with a fun wavy lace pattern is the Cloudbreak Tee from Wool & Pine. This pretty top uses DK weight yarn and has classic t-shirt styling with a lacy twist. It comes in 11 sizes up to a 72 inch/183 cm bust. It has a seamless set in sleeve design that’s a lot of fun and produces a great fit. It can be worked with long or short sleeves and the lace pattern is both written and charted. Learn more on Ravelry.

If you want the lace to be more of an accent than a major design element, check out Ophelia by Star Crossed Knits. This pretty design can be a tank top, short sleeved or long sleeved project, and it features a bit of lace around the neckline, sleeves/armholes and hem. It’s worked from the top down in fingering weight yarn and comes in nine sizes.

Add a little simple lace to the top of your knit shirt to make it lighter with this pattern from Little Theorem. This project is worked seamlessly from the top down and has a slightly drapey neckline and little cap sleeves. It’s available in nine sizes and uses lace weight yarn.

Another option with a bit of lace on the top is Lokta by Joan Forgione, available on Ravelry. The yoke portions are worked back and forth in rows, then joined to work the stockinette stitch section in the round. The pattern calls for a fingering weight yarn plus mohair (or use a light DK), and the lace is both written and charted. The design has eight sizes available.

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

Have you read?