Author: Pam

New England native, Florida resident. Blogging about boating, beach-combing, gardening, camping, and knitting. Work for Zazzle as a designer since 2008.

A Collection of Summer Knitting Patterns

Sharing some favorited patterns from a summer knitting collection.

Spring is here and much of the country is ready for it – more than ready. And summer is close behind. Knitters may be thinking about starting new knitting projects with summer in mind. This page lists some of my favorite, saved patterns, and a few yarn ideas for summer knitting.

I live in central Florida and I love to knit. This was a challenge for me in the beginning of my knitting journey. I tried all kinds of yarn. Sock yarn comes in such pretty colors. Superwash yarn sounded perfect, but in the end, it droops horribly. I just didn’t like the looks of my knitting projects. They didn’t have that cozy feel. I like wool.

So what can I knit that I might possibly wear during the six months plus of heat? More importantly, do I want to bother with that type of knitting? Each year it seems that I continue to debate this issue with myself!

Summer Tops to Knit, Patterns From My Favorites

These patterns are saved in my Ravelry “favorites”.

  • Camisole No. 11, by My Favorite Things Knitwear. This is a cute, sleeveless, eyelet pattern top. It is also a new pattern (as of this writing). Yarn is DK weight.
  • Lima Top, by Pernille Larson. Sleeveless tank with colorwork. This one is knit bottom up. I’m not really sure how the colorwork is done at the top? (Fingering weight yarn)
  • Diamond Breeze cardigan, by Pascuali Designs. A lightweight, no-buttons cardigan.
  • Uptown Tee, by Tori Yu. A simple short sleeve tee with interesting little sleeve caps. (Fingering weight)
  • Ombre Tank Redux, by Espace Tricot. Wide stripes, ombre coloring, long sleeveless tank pattern.
  • Caesura Tuck, by Asa Tricosa. All one color tank, with a tuck in the back, and tiny, inset pocket.
girl on a float, illustrated image
Image by André Santana Design André Santana from Pixabay

No Plans to a Knit Summer Project

After perusing these patterns, here are my thoughts. Yes, a few of these tops could work for me. They take less yarn (cheaper maybe) and less time to knit (depending on the yarn) than something with long sleeves. But no, I don’t want to do it. It simply seems, for me, like a waste of time.

There are so many sweater patterns in my queue, just waiting for the chance to be knit. I have two collections of wool recently purchased for chosen patterns. There are four or five works in progress (WIPS) in my knitting bags. I’ll never get to them all as it is. Why would I want to throw in a summer top?

But maybe my readers need a starting point, and maybe they are looking for a cute summer top to knit. I sit in air-conditioning coolness all summer long. Many people do not, and they need a cooler project in their laps.

Summer Knitting Yarn Ideas

The second problem with summer knitting is selecting a yarn. Which yarn should be used to knit a summer top? Summer tops tend to need washing a lot more than a winter sweater. Hand knits should be hand-washed, but is there a nice yarn that would hold up to machine washing?

Well, I don’t know the answer to that question, but I will list some yarn brands that the summer knitters have been using. And yes, if you live anywhere but Florida and the Deep South, maybe you would use some kind of wool.

  • Silk, or silk mix: Knitting For Olive Pure Silk, Kinu by Ito – is a 465 yard cone.
  • Linen, or mix: Sandnes Garn Tynn Line (at Wool & Company, this yarn is listed as machine wash, lay flat to dry). Isager Trio 2 – a mix of Linen, Cotton, and Lyocell.
  • Cotton, or mix: Search – lots out there. Be careful of shrinkage and color fading. Knitting for Olive Cotton Merino – a mix of cotton and Merino wool. Hempathy – mix of cotton, cellulose, and manufactured fibers.

While I do live in a sub-tropical climate, I prefer knitting with wool. I love wearing hats and sweaters. They are worn only on the coldest of mornings and in my own yard, or for early morning walks. Floridians don’t want to be reminded of anything to do with actual winters. They came here to escape the cold. Dressing in wool here will get stares and glares.

girls by the sea AI illustration
Image by Seidenperle from Pixabay

If you have knit, or will knit any of these projects (or other summer projects) I’d love to hear how it goes. For now, I’m going to keep knitting my sweaters.

All Knitters Welcome

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Getting There on the Doublemassa Knitting Project

An update on my latest hat knitting project. This one is a very long hat called the Doublemassa.

The dark blue yarn skein is just about finished up. This morning was quite chilly for a March morning in Florida. I was bundled up in my newest Warm Up sweater, hat and mitts while I checked on the garden and filled the bird feeders. I decided to show my progress on the Doublemassa hat.

Fair Isle tube hat knitting in navy blue and off-white.

As you can see this is a very long hat! It looks huge, and I am hoping it will fit properly.

The colorwork designs are pretty cool, and I just finished up the birds rows. When looking at this hat finished, on Ravelry, the brim will fold up to either the birds or the hearts (which I have not even begun yet)!

Here is how the hat will fold: From the top of those snowflakes down, everything is tucked up inside. Then the snowflake brim part will be folded out and up. The snowflakes will cover most of those two colorwork sections above the snowflakes. This creates 4 layers of fabric at the brim. I’m not good at visualizing this and can’t wait to actually do it.

Even though this hat is already quite long, I have many rows of colorwork left to knit. It’s been a very fun pattern, as I love doing Fair Isle. The Rauma yarn is quite awesome as well.

As I knit more, I will be attaching a new skein of blue, and will probably need more of the natural color eventually.

If you have knit the Musselburgh hat, the Doublemassa hat style is very similar. It is more involved because of all the colorwork, but begins at one end and makes a tube to the other end. The Musselburgh can be worn inside out, as if it were two hats, but this one is worn on one side only. It will have a tassel too!

Let’s Keep Knitting!

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Doublemassa is The Hat of My Dreams

Beginning the lined, Doublemassa hat pattern. It is a stocking cap done using two different yarn colors.

The hat pattern book “Hats On!” has provided loads of fun hats to knit. I have already knit quite a few, and a few more than once. My favorite of all the hats has always been the pink one featured on the front of this book. It is named the Doublemassa.

Hats on book with Rauma yarn

Way back when I purchased Hats On! I was a beginner knitter. Many of the patterns in the book seemed too difficult and involved reading a chart. I hadn’t mastered that yet, so I stuck to knitting the simpler beanies. It has taken many years to work my way up to attempting the Doublemassa.

Doublemassa Difficulty Rating

There is a lot to this hat pattern. I don’t recommend it for beginners.

This colorwork hat is knit using a chart. A long chart. The anatomy of the Doublemassa is this. It is a short-ish stocking cap. It has a fold up wide brim that is 4 layers thick. Two yarn colors are used for the colorwork and there is a lining. The pattern begins with the lining being knit from the top-down. Once the lining is complete, the colorwork begins. A tassel is added at the end.

This hat book is full of various types of hats, but honestly, the directions are not in depth. For example, in the case of the Doublemassa pattern, we begin by knitting the lining as a top-down hat. We cast on only 12 stitches and knit in the round while expanding (4 each round) with yarn-overs.

I used the Disappearing Loop cast on, by rewatching this video by Always Knitting. This is the same cast on I used for the Musselburgh Hat. It allows for knitting in the round from a very small circumference outward. It also involves Magic Loop. This type of cast on is fiddly no matter how you do it! I used a tiny crochet hook to help.

Disappearing Loop
Doublemassa hat knitting
Magic Loop
16″ circular

The pattern simply says to expand by 4 stitches using yarn overs. Since it’s a lining, and won’t be seen, I was not very careful about spacing my beginning increases evenly. Those yarn-overs need to be knit through the back loop, or else a hole is created. This is something the writer assumes we know.

As I read on, the colorwork part has various rows where decreases are made. All the row says is “decrease – with the number”. So let’s say there are 130 stitches and I need to evenly decrease by 6 stitches. I’m going to use the Knitulator to space my decreases. (Or, divide by 6 to estimate.) Most decreases are 2 or 4 which are easy to figure.

Blue colorwork on Doublemassa hat
Did colorwork wrong
Ripping back colorwork to begin again
Needle with picked up stitches to rip back
Colorwork in blue
Began colorwork again
Knitting on the Doublemassa hat while camping in Florida.
Knitting on the Doublemassa while camping

Yarn

I’m using three skeins of Rauma Finull, which is a fingering weight, rustic wool. I dug into my stash and had enough of the natural beige heather to be the main color and lining. I’m using a dark blue as the contrast color.

Needle size is 4, but I’m not sure if I will go up a size when it comes to the colorwork. (I did not change the needle size.) My daughter’s head is small, so I may stick with the size 4. She has been asking for another hat with a brim for ear warmth. Doublemassa should work nicely.

The folding of the hat is hard to figure out, by looking at the photos. I guess it will be obvious when it’s done. I have quite a few patterns in the works now, so it may be a while before this one is finished.

Knitting journey continued…

My Turn to Knit the Sophie Scarf

I splurged and bought two skeins of Cashmere yarn to knit the large size Sophie Scarf. But first, I knit it using some yarn from my stash. This pattern is quite popular and requires a next-to-the-skin softness. Read on to see how the yarns compare.

Sophie #1 – The First Try

I’ve already knit one Sophie in off-white, Lorna’s Laces Soulmate yarn. I believe this yarn is discontinued, and I’ve had the skein for years. I split the skein in half, to knit with two strands held together. I knit it on a size 5 needle.

The scarf ended up 51 inches long and 5 inches wide. (Pattern measurements are 41 inches long and 5 inches wide.). Although my scarf is 10 inches longer, it is just long enough for my liking. I’ve read that quite a few knitters decided to make their large size scarves longer.

Sophie scarf knitting pattern washed and drying
Sophie scarf length
51 inches long

Sophie #2 in Cashmere Yarn

After scouring three little scarf patterns, I purchased three sets of cashmere yarn. Two sets are Lang Cashmere Premium, and one set is Pascuali Cashmere Charis (knitting another scarf with this).

The Lang yarn is sold in 25 gram balls, but each of them weigh 23 grams. the Charis is sold in 50 gram balls, but each of those weigh only 48 grams. Is there a reason that all six balls are not weighing in correctly? Do I have less yarn than advertised? Does all cashmere end up this way?

I’m going to start knitting and hope that my two balls of yarn will complete one, large size, longer, Sophie Scarf.

Lang Cashmere

Cashmere yarn is pretty expensive. Two balls of this yarn cost me around $50 and I will probably use just about all of two balls to complete the scarf. It makes a very soft and pretty fabric but, after knitting with one ball, I am not too happy with the yarn.

Cashmere yarn leftover

First, I had a knot that needed to be cut out. Knots are annoying, but they happen. Then, further along the first ball, I had an annoying split. The yarn strand was unraveling (see photo below). That had to be cut and reattached. This yarn does not splice and that means I have two tails, for each time I do this. The Sophie Scarf is double-sided, meaning that there is no good place (wrong side) to weave in the ends….!! I’m a bit perturbed.

split in yarn strand
A split in the yarn strand
Yarn ends to weave in after starting new strands to compensate for knots and splits in the cashmere.
All those ends…

The designer has a suggestion for attaching a new strand, and that is to do so along the edge. I had planned to only have to attach a new ball – leaving 2 strands somewhere along the middle of the scarf. I now have 6 tails, and that is thanks to the faults in this ball of Cashmere yarn!

I had to dip into the second ball, and discovered that it was perfect. Ravelry reviewers, who have knit with Lang Cashmere Premium have complained of the same things, so my bad ball is not all that rare it seems. I have two more balls of this same yarn brand, in another color. We’ll see how that goes.

Loose tie
Sophie in Rosewood
Tighter tie

My finished Sophie scarf ended up being 54 inches long. I like to have the option to tie my scarf loosely. The length is perfect for me and it’s a very pretty color.

Measuring the length of the Sophie Scarf.

Now that Sophie is finished, I must get my next scarf done. I’m on a little scarf kick it seems.