So here it is – the finished Skies Light top and I have named her the #berveleytee after my mum. My mum has been my primary pattern tester and crochet adventure confidante from day dot patiently and efficiently hooking away finding my errors. (Thanks mum!) I am grateful to now also have a select group of people who test my designs (and I think mum is grateful too – haha), but it was mum (Bev) who tested this tee for me ready for pattern release next week!
I mentioned in last week’s blog that I designed this pattern to be easy to intermediate – a good place to start if you have never made a garment before. Construction methods use basic stitches and techniques. The challenge is in making a whole lot of tall ttr stitches (UK terms – that’s dtr sts in US terms) with even tension and making them as straight posts rather than tapered ice-cream cones. What a great way to practice that skill AND come out with a breezy summer tee that could sling off the shoulder if the mood takes you?
Here are some pics of my finished Medium sized tee which will in Scheepjes Skies Light Cirrus 110. Now I am always banging on about blocking your finished garment and these pics will help show the difference. First, I have a few photos immediately after finishing. Like – immediately! You can still see a stitch marker hanging around and a few tails for that “fresh off the hook” look. I was on my lunch break from work a few weeks back and quickly snapped a bunch of pics. Looks great – very happy with it, but it’s a bit stiff and looks a tiny bit short.
Through the wonder of that boring annoying step that no-one likes (swatching for gauge and checking gauge before and after blocking) I already knew that the fabric stretches approximately 10% vertically during the blocking process so I knew it was going to soften and lengthen and I was not in the least bit concerned. (I always encourage a fabric to stretch vertically during blocking as gravity is going to do that when you wear it eventually anyway).
And now the after blocking photos below: how good is that swoosh!? Its softer, the vertical posts are sitting a bit closer together and the overall tee is sitting longer on the body. Perfect.
Scheepjes Skies Light is a premium cotton product and feels really luxurious, but maybe it doesn’t suit everyone’s budget. Fortunately, Scheepjes Cotton 8 is the same meterage per gram (Cotton 8 is 50g/170m and Skies Slight is 100g/340m) and according to the Scheepjes website, they can be used interchangeably. Yay, right? …So I asked mum to test a size Small in Cotton 8 colour 714 – an eye-grabbing sunny yellow. I am between a Small and a Medium on the Craft Yarn Council sizing guidelines, and the smaller size would show a more fitted look. The drape is not quite as soft as the premium cotton Skies Light and doesn't stretch quite as much vertically during blocking, but there are 48 bright and brilliant colours to choose from! Here are some pics from earlier today.
The pattern will be FREE here on my blog next week and will also be available for ad-free PDF download from Ravelry and Etsy for a small fee if you would like to support my work. It would be wonderful if you would share your projects using the hashtag #beverleytee and please always credit me as the designer (thank you so much – it helps to tell others about my designs and does not cost you anything).
The Beverley Tee pattern has been written for Skies Light and or Cotton 8 and I have graded it to 9 sizes as shown in the table here below:
If you want to be ready to go, here are the Materials details for Skies Light and for Cotton 8:
Amazingly, the lovely people at Scheepjes who provided yarn support for this design told me that you could use the 22 vibrant mottled colourways of Scheepjes Sunkissed (100% cotton, 50g/170m) or the 21 pastel shades of Organicon (100% cotton organic soft, 50g/170m) as well! I haven’t tested with these yarns, but given they are all cotton with the same meterage per gram, the risk of substituting these yarns is very low.
SKIES Light, Cotton 8, Organicon and Sunkissed are available through Scheepjes retailers and these affiliate links below – it does not cost you any extra, and it helps to support me as a designer as I receive a small percentage of the sale.
Wool Warehouse (in the UK)
Caros Atelier (in the Netherlands)
See you next week!
Susan (Peppergoose)
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