mid summer plumeria

In an earlier post I talked about trying out a diamond lace pattern for a summer sweater. So it’s finally done! 

I used less than one skein of Bernat Handicrafter Cotton (large ball, 340g) in Queen Ann’s Lace Ombre. I had started this sweater with the goal of using up the ball of yarn after making a couple of dish cloths. So I was able to make two dish cloths (one was crocheted too! The other knitted) AND a sweater out of one ball of yarn. Now, the sweater is of a cropped style and I’m a small person, and I did use an extra small skein of pale yellow for the ribbing, but still! I was quite happy with the ball of yarn :) The striping also worked out quite evenly with garter stitch. Kind of retro feel.

It’s essentially a boat-neck square top. Pretty easy to make, and quite comfortable, perfect for mid/late summer evenings, or hanging out by the waters where there’s a bit of a breeze. 

This is more of an adaptation of a pattern than an original pattern. There is no way I’d have the skills to come up with the diamond lace pattern. The chart comes from the Diamond Girl sweater pattern by Red Heart (linking to its Ravelry page here, as the direct link to the pattern site doesn’t seem to work).

What I used:

One ball of Bernat Handicrafter Cotton (large, 340g) in Queen Ann’s Lace Ombre

One skein of Bernat Handicrafter Cotton (small, 50g) in Pale Yellow

6mm circular needles (36″)

5mm circular needles (9″ — for sleeves ribbing and collar)

Tapestry needle for sewing up seams

Finished size I made: Bust 35″, length 16.5″ (size adjustment in italics below)

 

Note: 

The instruction below does require knowing how to read knitting charts.

The sweater starts from the bottom ribbing of front piece, knitting body up to neck, binding off a number of stitches in the centre for collar, then in the next row casting on the same number of stitches using cable cast on, then continuing down the body of back, ending with ribbing at bottom edge. The side seams are then sewn, then collar edging and armhole ribbing are worked using smaller circular needles.

What I did:

1. Download diamond lace chart. (Try following the link on its Ravelry page, or copy and paste the following link in your browser. Clicking on the link itself seems to only open up the Red Heart general site, not sure why: http://www.redheart.com/free-patterns/diamond-girl-top)

2. With larger needles and pale yellow yarn, cast on 65 st. Work 1x1 rib for 9 rows.

The chart is a 16 st pattern repeat, the easiest way to size up would be adding 16 st to cast on = CO 81. 16″=approx. 4.25″ in this gauge. CO 81 would therefore result in 43.5″ around.

3. Fasten off pale yellow, attach main colour yarn, begin working diamond lace chart across. Use knit stitch in every row.

4. Repeat chart 4 times. (or more repeats if you’d like a longer sweater)

5. Next row: knit 12 st, bind off 41 st, knit 12 st. (For larger size i.e. CO 81, suggest knit 16, bind off 49, knit 16.) 

6. Next row: knit 12 st, cast on 41 st using cable cast on, knit 12 st. (For larger size i.e. CO 81, suggest knit 16, cast on 49, knit 16.) 

7. Next row: knit every stitch.

8. Next row: begin diamond lace pattern, repeat pattern 4 times. (or more times if you’d like a longer sweater, same number of repeats as the other side of sweater)

9. Fasten off main colour, attach pale yellow, work 1x1 ribbing for 9 rows. Bind off.

10. Assembly: Sew up side seams from bottom of sweater to under arm, approx. the length of 2 diamond lace pattern repeats. (or adjust to your measurement)

11. Sleeves: Turn sweater right side out. Using smaller needles, attach pale yellow to arm opening at underarm seam, pick up and work 1x1 ribbing evenly around arm opening, for 6 rows, then bind off. Repeat for the other arm opening, ensuring the same number of stitches on each sleeve.

12. Collar: Using smaller needles, attach pale yellow at centre back of collar, pick up and knit evenly around collar. Knit one more row around, bind off.

Weave in all ends, and we’re done! :D

Please feel free to leave a comment below if you have any questions or need clarifications! Have a happy, crafty week! :D

 

8 thoughts on “mid summer plumeria

  1. I love this version. It completely puts to shame the other pattern, if it’s the one I found. Your link opens up to the redHeart site but not to the pattern. Is it the purple with beads diamond top?

  2. Hi Kim, thanks so much for pointing that out! The link to the pattern site seems to always get redirected to the general website, even if I post the full URL, not sure why! But yes, it’s the purple top, the direct link is here: http://www.redheart.com/free-patterns/diamond-girl-top (try copy and pasting it to your browser, if clicking on it doesn’t take you directly to the pattern site). I’ve since changed the links in the post. Thanks again for leaving a comment about that, and thank you so much for your kind words about my tutorial! Happy knitting!

  3. Hi Jean, I’m glad you like the pattern! I did a quick search and according to LL Bean, size 1X is around 43–45″. This top is loose-fitting, so you would want to add 2 pattern repeats to the original pattern, which means adding 32 stitches at cast-on = 97 st. Then, at the part where you’re binding off some stitches at the centre for neck opening, try the following:
    k23, bind off 51, k23
    New row: k23, co 51 using cable cast-on, k23
    That should result in finished measurement of 51″ around.
    You would probably also want to add length to the sweater, perhaps measure it against yourself as you go, but I’m guessing repeating the diamond lace pattern 6 times each for front and back would work, that would give you a length of approx. 23″.

    Hope this helps! Please feel free to leave a comment if you need further information! Happy knitting!

  4. Hi! I’m on step 8 of your pattern where I need to restart the chart, but I would be starting row 1 on the wrong side. Is this right? Will it affect the top? Thanks in advance!

  5. Hi Brittany! Thank you for giving the pattern a try! Yes, row 1 is on the wrong side after rejoining after neck opening. The front will look a little different from the back but not easy to tell! Happy knitting!

  6. Cool thanks! This is my first time both knitting a lace pattern and a top of any kind. I’m super excited to finish this, I’ve learned a lot doing so.

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