Tag: summer knitting

I feel like I’ve been on a roll with summer knits lately. But of course when I say, “no I won’t knit myself that hat because it’s warm out…” the weather takes a nose dive. It’s been cold and rainy and insanely breezy so I haven’t worn my latest finished object but it was light enough when I got home from work to take pictures!

Here is the Cosette tee, part of the Berroco Pima 100 collection. I wanted to make this tee when I saw the pattern and then I saw a sample in store at Fibre Space and immediately new I wanted to make it as my next project. It’s knit from cuff to cuff so the stitches go side to side instead of up and down so I decided why not play with doing vertical stripes for this one. So how does one set that up for this pattern?

I colored on my schematic of course. I use the Bamboo Paper app on my iPad a lot to make notes and draw on top of patterns. So I decided to color block out how I thought it should go and then I read through the pattern and figured out the easiest places to do a new color join. Essentially anywhere there wasn’t a decrease or increase in the pattern was where I decided to add a new color. It’s the same on both sides but I found that the blue/purple side has a row or two more than the pink side. Of course only I notice that. And since I didn’t do a solid color I decided to add a few rows to the neckline instead of just picking up and doing a purl bind-off immediately.

I also thought using the navy blue yarn would be a nice way to pull it all together. Initially I was only going to make this with five colors and make the center a stripe of purple but when I saw the lavender shade of yarn I decided to just make it an even six color blocks. And you already saw I barely had enough purple yarn left but hey it worked out in this instance.

This is what it looks like once you’ve knit it from cuff to cuff (see how it matches the schematic?). It was hard to wrap my brain around this piece and I kept worrying it wouldn’t fit but I had to trust that my gauge was right and I was doing what I was supposed to do. Once you knit it, you fold it in half.

And then you just have to sew up the side seams! Of course the first time around I was slightly off and had to take out the pink seam and redo it. I was proud of myself for seaming it fairly neatly on both sides. I don’t love seaming but hey you gotta do what you gotta do.

I love how the piece curves around the hips and back and when you block it the piece grows a bit. The bottom is finished off with picking up stitches all the way around and then just doing a purled bind-off. It leaves a slightly raised edge. I actually felt like my ends were clean enough to leave on their own but I think they did this so that it wouldn’t curl up on you. And it’s funny, I think I like the pink side more but overall I like this fun color palette in general. I’m glad I opted for more color. And I could see myself making this again with all white and then one big block of green or something.

Again, I really do love working with the Berroco Pima 100 yarn. In the images where I’m wearing the tee this was after I washed it on delicate cycle in my washing machine and let it air dry. It holds up well and is soft and light on the body. It’s a perfect summer weight and it’s making me think about knitting more light weight cotton sweaters for fall and even winter. It’s still soft but not as hot and heavy as a lot of my wool sweaters are at times. Especially when we have mild winters around here in the Maryland/DC area. Next up I’m working on a test knit for Alicia Plummer again for a summer tee. Her version uses Quince and Co Kestrel yarn but I have leftover Berroco Maya from my Bragita top from last year that I’m using. I’ve really wanted to try some of the Quince and Co yarn but it’s a bit on the expensive side so I’ve held off on making a purchase. So what are you working on for summer right now?