More Summer Shirts to Knit

It wasn’t that long ago that I shared a post full of summer T-shirt knitting patterns, but any visit to Ravelry lately will show you that many more have been published since then. So I thought I would share a few more. All of these are from Ravelry except this first one, just so you know.

While I say these are for summer, Lion Brand Yarn calls this one a Seasonless Raglan, and really they all are. You can wear a short-sleeved sweater over a dress or another top with short or long sleeves, or wear it as a layer under a sweater in the winter. This particular one is seasonless because it uses a light worsted weight yarn and is cropped to go with all your outfits. It comes in nine sizes with a chest measurement ranging from 33 to 65 inches, or 84 to 165 cm. The pattern is free or you can buy a kit with the yarn from Lion Brand.

I also love the simplicity of the Linar Tee from Joana Filip. This one has double folded hems for extra sleekness, and it comes in nine sizes. Actual chest circumference ranges from 32 to 63 inches/80 to 160 cm, and it’s meant to be worn with about 2 inches/5 cm of positive ease.

If you like a top with a lot of options built in, check out the Angel Tee from mabelle knitting. This one can have short or long sleeves, and the short sleeves can have ribbing or a folded hem. There are also 11 sizes, with a finished bust circumference of 30.3 to 55.5 inches/77 to 141 cm. It should be worn with 0-2 inches/0-5 cm of positive ease.

The Billie Tee from The Knit Purl Girl is a more relaxed, boxy top you’ll love to throw on when relaxing around the house or running errands. It’s worked in a fingering weight silk yarn for plenty of luxury, and the stripes add a bit of fun. It comes in 12 sizes, with actual chest measurement of the garment ranging from 37.5 to 65 inches, or 95 to 165 cm. It’s recommended to be knit with 6-8 inches/ 15-20 cm positive ease for the smaller sizes and 4-8 inches/10-20 cm for the larger ones.

Another cute striped top comes from Irene Lin. Her Lustre tee uses sport weight yarn and narrower stripes, and is worked from the top down. There are 10 available sizes, with a finished circumference of 35 to 62 inches/89 to 158 cm, and is recommended to be knit with 0-4 inches, or 0 to 10 cm, of positive ease.

A Lightweight, Lacy Tee that’s Perfect for Summer Knitting [Knitting]

Add Some Lace to Your Summer Knitting [Knitting]

Knitting Patterns for Your Summer Picnic

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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