We’re finally getting some flashes of warm weather, thank goodness, because I’ve been knitting for spring and summer for months, and believe me, when it’s cold as heck outside and inside and you’re knitting a little cotton something and shivering, you long for a big pile of woolly goodness on your lap!
But then I feel a bit smug because I have some great ideas for you for spring and summer knitting and wearing. I have to say, I love simple styles for summer. I don’t like to fuss with clothes on even the dressiest of occasions but on a day-to-day basis when it’s hot and muggy, I just want to look decent and feel cool, and the two sweaters I just finished fit that bill to a T.
First, we received a shipment of a beautiful ribbon from Louisa Harding.
The colors are amazing, and if you think I could resist making something with it as soon as it hit the door, you must be thinking of someone else. I started one or two things and gave them up because the complicated colors and ribbon-y texture are just too much for anything stitch-heavy. I went with Quick Sand from Heidi Kirrmaier, which has simple lines, few details and lets the yarn itself dress things up or down.
Definitely dressed up in this yarn!
From the back you can get the idea of the radial increases she uses to do the shaping:
I think this yarn would be amazing in a simple t-shirt style, or for a really simple and quick knit, a plain loosely-knit rectangular wrap, to tie around your purse strap when you’re outside in the heat, and to drape over your shoulders when you’re inside in A/C.
Another “new” yarn is Polynesia, and I put that in quotes because we’ve had this type of super-textured yarn before from different European companies. This is probably my favorite version because of the fiber blend. Mostly cotton and linen, there’s also a bit of rayon, which adds a little shine and drape that many versions lack.
And sometimes a yarn and a pattern just come together perfectly. Just about the time the yarn arrived, the Elemental Raglan from Yumiko Alexander was published. She used a different yarn, but when I saw it, I knew it would be just the thing for this yarn, and would be a fabric and style that I would want to wear all summer – light, open, loose-fitting – and easy to knit!
Here’s my version:
A close-up of the garter-stitch fabric:
and here’s how I’ll wear it when warm weather really hits:
Perfect! And I changed nothing about the pattern except to shorten all lengths by about an inch and a half, knowing that the fabric would relax quite a bit when I blocked it (textured yarns often do and this must be taken into account when you’re knitting with them – swatching and blocking the swatch will tell the tale), and I picked up and bound off around the neck to stabilize it so it wouldn’t stretch. We have some wonderful colors in the yarn – and I guarantee that we won’t have them very long. The yarn for this sweater in this size costs under $35!
