Another type of project I worked on during the past summer, was summer cotton tops. The idea was to create simple lacy tops, that would work well for hot weather.
The construction was really easy: seamless, in the round, and except one example, bottom-up. For each project I used a different lace pattern – each was chosen based on the recipient, and from a stitch dictionary.
In one instance, the black top, I performed some modifications to the stitch pattern I chose from one of my dictionaries. The black yarn was basically hiding the lacework, that’s why I had to simplify the design a little bit. It turned out quite nice. I even had some knitting students asking for the instructions for this stitch pattern. They liked it so much, they wanted to use it themselves.
For each garment, I were to use ruffles in a different placement. There were two possibilities: on the bottom and on the straps. I used different techniques – knitted ruffles and crocheted ruffles and both ways were quite good looking. Crochet had the advantage that is was easier to add afterwards and faster to make.
My most favorite garment of all was the blue one. I am knitting right now a variation of this design for myself in a super deep fuchsia color. I am still working on some design elements and because I use it as a ‘rest project’, progress is a bit slow.
On the smaller side, I also made two pairs of crochet earrings. I consulted my copy of Edie Eckman’s Beyond the square crochet motifs for ideas on motifs. For the orange-blue ones, I used Motif 1 Circle and for the blue ones, I modified another motif. I really like how the second one turned out – it’s a shape that has some more texture, and it will work well for other types of projects too.
These were all quite satisfying projects, as they were not resource and time demanding. They were also a nice opportunity to use cotton to make some interesting summer garments and accessories. Summer knitting does not have to be exclusively for things we wear in fall and winter! 😉
