Stitch a Lightweight Top with a Touch of Lace

It took almost all summer but I’m finally getting interested in knitting some tops for the summer. I have so many long-sleeved, cozy sweaters, which is great, but I don’t have a lot of stuff I made to wear when it’s hot outside.

I’ve got my eye on the Wild Flowers Tee from Tif Neilan as a solid option to stitch for summer. It’s a fingering weight top worked from the top down, mostly in garter and stockinette stitch, with a little bit of lace at the top on the front.

The easy drop shoulder construction makes this a good project for someone who hasn’t knit a garment before, though it will take some time to knit even though it’s mostly stockinette because of the fineness of the yarn. The shoulders are shaped with short rows but that’s probably the most “complicated” skill required in the project. There’s also a provisional crochet cast on, and instructions for both the cast on and the German short rows called for are provided in the pattern. You’ll also need to be able to pick up stitches.

The pattern suggests using stitch markers to mark each of the repeats in the lace pattern, in which case you would need 10 to 18 markers for the lace section, depending on the size you are knitting, plus a different marker for the end of the round.

The pattern comes in nine sizes up to a chest measurement of 66 inches/165 cm. It is designed to be worn with 5-7 inches of positive ease. You can also choose to knit a size with less ease, but you’ll want to try on the garment before and while knitting the sleeves to make sure that they fit comfortably with the reduced ease. It’s also written to a cropped length but you can adjust that as well, though you will need more yarn.

Check the pattern out on Ravelry.

[Photo: Tif Neilan.]

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.

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