Welcome, light and breezy summer knitting

Summer knitting fibers lean towards the cotton, silk, linen, bamboo, light weight wool, and blends of all the above. These yarns can run from very fine to super bulky. Personally, super bulky cotton is fine only if worn on a svelte figure.

Super bulky not only looks ungainly, but can just be too heavy weight-wise. It takes a whole lot more yarn to make spin a chunky yarn than a lighter weight one.

This is why I love a dk weight to sport weight for summer. It’s lighter, and if you choose to use a lager sized needle, you can get a more open fabric, which will give you a gorgeous drape.

If you want handkerchief weight, you can use a fingering weight or sock weight yarn. Depending on what fiber your yarn is will determine just how light your finished garment will be.

A new spring arrival is a fingering weight lamb’s wool and cotton blend in rainbow of graduated colors in a single cake, and comes in six color ways.

Sandy, a prodigious knitter, fell in love with the yarn, and proceeded to knit this gorgeous featured top. She not only enjoyed knitting with the yarn, but loved choosing how she wanted the colors to run. The lace was fun and easy to work. It is knit from the bottom up in the round to the underarm, and then the yoke is knit back and forth.

The sleeves are picked up and worked down on the round, with hardly any sewing involved! Folded up, the top rests easily in your palm and weighs less than 4 ounces. It’s the perfect warm weather sweater both to knit and wear.

Thursday night knitting continues thoroughout the summer from 6:30 -8:30 p.m., for anyone looking to learning to knit or just wanting to pick up the needles and start again. Please call 860482-3979, to sign up. Sandy’s beautiful sweater is available as a kit in the shop, or online.

Ginger Balch / Contributed photo