Caspar Top
Breezy Summer Top in Silk
I have such a dilemma with summer tops. I want to have a year-round knit wardrobe and love to wear my knits out and about. The problem with warm weather knits, however, is that I just can’t get behind wearing tops in thick cotton or linen yarns. I’ve tried; multiple times. I’ve used 100% cotton. I’ve used cotton/linen blends. I’ve used linen/merino blends. No matter how much I love the project or how excited I am once I finish it, I just don’t wear these finished objects. They end up feeling heavy, or just look a little too messy for my liking. I’ll look at it fondly in my dresser drawer, and then put it right back.
At this point I really thought hand knits for summer just weren’t for me. And then Flock Fiber Festival was announced — in August. There’s no way I was going to a fiber festival and not wearing a hand knit, but August heat meant I needed something light and breezy.
That’s when I remembered I had two balls of Juniper Moon Farm Findley in my stash (in the colorway Rappahannock). This yarn is a 50% silk, 50% merino blend in lace weight. I knew doubling it up would defeat the purpose of something light, so my goal was to find a pattern with a super loose gauge that would play up the openness of a lace weight gauge on larger needles. I searched Ravelry for tank top patterns using lace weight yarn and came across the Caspar Top by Johanna Gehrisch. Her example uses mohair, but the yarn weight was otherwise the same and I knew I could achieve the top I was looking for by following this pattern.
Starting Out
This tank top comes together so quickly, and the loose gauge really speeds things up in the beginning.
This was a great pattern — easy to follow and a breeze to knit up, even with lace weight yarn! I opted to bind off with a 2-stitch i-cord so it wouldn’t be too bulky, and then moved on to the applied i-cord edges. I have to admit, I really hate picking up stitches. And there were a loooot to pick up. You pick up all the neck stitches, armhole stitches, and keyhole stitches and apply an i-cord edging throughout. While it’s not technically difficult, it is time consuming and not the most fun. But totally worth it!
I also chose to connect the keyhole, so I attached the i-cord edging for a seamless look. I’ll probably still add a button here, but now there’s no need to worry about it stretching out over time.
I-Cord Edging
Give yourself a lot of time and space to pick up all these stitches and work on the i-cord edging. I pinned and blocked this top before starting the i-cord to make it a little easier.
Once all the i-cord edging was done, I blocked this top one more time, fully pinning it down to keep the edges from curling. I’ve only worn it around the house so far, but it hasn’t curled back up yet. We’ll see once I wear it out for a full day!
Final Takeaways
This tank top is a great little addition to my wardrobe. It’s super light weight — the silk/merino blend combined with the lace weight on a large gauge means I get tons of airflow. The tighter gauge past the chest also helps it feel like I don’t need to wear a cami underneath as it doesn’t feel too revealing. This is exactly the warm weather piece I was hoping for. The only open question I still have is how much the i-cord will start to curl as I wear it, so we’ll see how it goes!
For more information, check out my Ravelry page.
