Pattern: Sunshine Coast by Heidi Kirrmaier
Yarn: Espace Tricot Petit Lin+ in White.
Mods: Added 2 repeats to lengthen the body and skipped the sleeves.
Ravelry Project page here.
I haven't been this happy with an FO for myself in ages! Over the past couple of years I've embraced a looser silhouette on top. I almost always where slim pants (99% of the time it's jeans) and I love the look of drape on top paired with trim on the bottom. It's taken a few false starts for me to figure out how to do positive ease right. It can be tricky. I've discovered that if you want to wear positive ease and look elegant rather than frumpy, you've got to have loads of drape. Doing a wooly, worsted weight, cabled sweater with positive ease didn't work for me, but knitting this loose, flowing, linen top with positive ease? Nailed it!
I had originally intended to knit this pattern exactly as written, long sleeves and all, but when I tried it on after having completed the body I knew it had to be short sleeved. It's the perfect t-shirt and since the linen is light and cool I'll get maximum wear out of it over the summer as a sleeveless garment. Though I will admit that I'm already considering knitting another version, in the same linen but a darker colourway, with 3/4 sleeves to be more of a transitional piece.
Knitting with linen is so different from knitting with wool, but the results are worth it. It felt like a bit of a slog there for a while. I was constantly fighting with my stitches to get them to glide smoothly around my needles, but I suspect that might be because of the interchangeable needles I was using, something with a smoother join probably would have eliminated that problem completely. Once I had completed the knitting, I threw caution to the wind and tossed my brand new t-shirt in the washer and dryer with a white wash. It was exhilarating! It came out looking perfect. How cool is that? I will definitely be rushing to Espace Tricot and using their in house line of linen yarns for my next summer knit, it's really lovely and comes in so many great colours.
I'm very pleased with my decision to knit this classic t-shirt in white. It's so crisp and cool. I do worry about staining it, but since it's so easy to wash that takes most of the fear out. I really love that I can tuck it in. I am a huge fan of the half tuck and though most of these photos show the tee untucked when I decided to tuck there was no turning back.
So there you have it, I LOVE this top and my only regret is that I didn't have it finished earlier in the season so I could wear it all summer!