Needles have been flying.  Working on a repeat performance of the Garn Studio pattern: Midsummer’s Day that I knitted in April, for my daughter.

I don’t often knit the same pattern twice but I really loved the shape and simplicity of this one – having chosen to knit the body part in plain stocking stitch because I was using a colour changing yarn and felt texture was not needed.

Anyway, for my daughter, I followed pattern instructions for a size S . . . for myself, I had to go up to a size XL, but just managed to knit this summer top in 200g of the Gründl Cotton Quick Batik yarn. Using the same colour as before . . . drum roll . . . here is mine.  It’s less “crop top” than the one I knitted for my daughter, because at my age, no one wants to see my midriff.

I didn’t attempt to match colours on front and back.

And I love it.

I think it’s going to be a great style this summer . . . and I’m going to cast on, in a different colour, and make myself another one.

I knitted a second item for my daughter, knowing she would be visiting in April, and wanting to be able to surprise her with something other than the green cardigan (shown previously, and which she knew about).  I’d seen lots of free patterns for various summer tops on Garn Studio, written for Drops yarns.  I was looking with a view to knitting with some of the recently purchased Gründl yarns I nabbed, at bargain price, on @m@zon.

I’d already done a tension swatch to make sure I could knit it up to a DK tension and then went in search of a suitable pattern. Wanted something quick to knit, so I was looking at sleeveless and nothing fancy.

I opted for this pattern, which  goes under the reference Drops 232-24 and is called Midsummer’s Day.

I chose this for the general shape:  square neckline; the way the straps grow from the ribbed neckline; and ignoring the textured stitch, since I was planning on using a variegated yarn and didn’t see much point worrying with texture which would probably be hidden in the colour changes.

Just to remind you . . . I’d treated myself to this huge supply of yarn candy not long ago . . . I decided to knit for my daughter in the blue & green colourway . . . And here’s what it looks like.  I really enjoyed these instructions and how the armholes are shaped with the decreases happening inside a ribbed edging.

Front view . . . I think colours could almost be described as “kingfisher”, minus the orange, or maybe “peacock”.  Whatever I call this colour, it’s a lovely collection of purple, lilac, turquoise, very pale blue, and almost lime green.

And back. Front and back are knit identical. I didn’t try to match stripes but I did attempt to cast on both pieces with roughly the same shades.  I followed pattern instructions for a size S, using 3.5mm for the ribbing and 4mm for the stocking stitch. It took less than 200g to knit this size.   It’s a casual, cotton crop top. I love how it turned out and am currently in the process of knitting this pattern again, for myself (albeit a few sizes bigger lol)..

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In March, I shared with you the fact I was knitting a cardigan for my daughter. Following this pattern, with lace effect bands up the fronts.

As I often do these days (because I’m growing more confident with my knitting skills) I made a few alterations along the way. The main one being, to ignore the pattern instructions for the raglan decrease and to do it my own way because I felt the pattern photograph makes it look rather snug around the arms.  I also decided to add the lace panel effect all the way up the sleeves because I think it looks much prettier.  Didn’t bother with a lace effect on the back though.

And here’s the daughter, modelling the cardie on her recent vist. I’m really pleased to see how well it fits, although on hindsight, I wonder if I should have made a size M instead of side S.  I used a lovely soft acrylic yarn “Perle” by Trimits, just under 300g, and some buttons from my stash.

I also surprised her with a cotton knitted crop top . . . weather hasn’t been warm enough for her to want to model that for me.