I knitted up another top in this Yarns: Sommer and I like the way it feels and wears so much that I grabbed some more of the yarn when I saw it on sale.

This may be the perfect pattern.

I started with Judy’s Magic Cast On at the back lattice. That way I have the body stitches for the back already life on my needle.
This yarn works up a little larger, but once I finish the lattice section I am planning to adjust including a possible three needle bind off for the sleeves. I am planning to keep myself open to any adjustments. I did check my gauge on the other top I made with the same yarn.
I can see that with this construction a top couple be worked in any yarnweight adjusting for size as you go. Cool stuff.

The lattice lace pattern is easy to remember. To make it even easier I placed a pink marker at the beginning of my RS rows ( RS, knit all sts).

I tried it on after working the neck opening ( I did the neck opening over 39 sts) and redid those couple of rows using a more stretchy bind off, Jenni’s stretchy bind off and a stretchy cast on I found on YouTube here: Stretchy Cast on. I used the second cast on she shows; the most stretchy one. It was a little difficult to do due to the thin and thick yarn; it was a little hard at times to pull through the loops, but it worked and I think the effort was well worth it. It is stretchy and looks nice. A better choice may have been #1 stretchy cast on in the video; the thicker edge would have matched the bind off better.
I used a stretchy bind off and cast on over less stitches because I don’t like the fall over your shoulder look, but also don’t want the opening too tight.
If I later think that it is too stretchy, I can always crochet around it.
8.24. I am blocking the lattice lace section before continuing with the body. The neck opening is 10 inches across with 8 inches on either side. I am planning to 3-needle- bind off three to four inches on each sleeve and then continue with the body. I am double checking/ swatching my knit in the round st st gauge on a size 6 needle and will add body sts if needed. I hope these notes make sense, I have a very clear idea on how to carry on

8.27. My modifications for the body. You may ask “why?”, my answer: I wanted to have more of a sleeve and match the st st gauge to the lattice lace gauge.

1. Added a life line to have the option to undo and reknit.

2. St st gauge on US #5 22 sts= 4” which means 36”=198 sts (2x 99) St st gauge on US #6 29 sts= 4” which means 36”=180sts (2x90).

Blocked lattice gauge 16.8 sts=4”
109 sts= 26”

Need to get to 18 “ from 26 “

Bind off 15 sts for each sleeve 109-(2x15)=79 sts for body

To change to st st and it’s gauge
add 18 sts across each front and back using formula.
5 times every 4th,
7 times every 5th,
5 times every 4th.

I like the fabric on US# 5 better, so I will go for the calculations for US 5.

8.28. I could take out the lifelines now as I tried on the top and it fits perfectly. All I have to do now is knit round and round until I reached the desired length ( I may do some waist shaping).

9.1. To break up the boring st st in the round , I added some eyelet stitches after 8 inches on either side curving in row by row both in the front and in the back.
I also switched to a US #6 needle at this point which is 8“ from armhole.

9.4. Finished at 13“ long from armhole with a purl row, eyelet row and then bind off purlwise to minimize curling.
I am not so sure about the eyelet design detail any more. It is sitting right where I wanted it , but I think plain st st could have also been nice. I leave it for now, but could always reknit the bottom five inches.

i like this summer top and it was so quick to knit up!

August 12- 15. 2019: I took out the eyelet stitching on the sides and made it longer. I was tempted to repeat the lattice stitch in the last 2.5 inches, make side slits and/ or short-row shaping in the back, but in the end I left it fairly plain with just a few garter stitch rows before binding off with an I-cord bind off to prevent curling. I used the US#7 for the last five inches .

August 20, 2019: Finished for the second time.
I like it much better this way. I wanted to keep the rest of the body plain and looked for suggestions on the Facebook page ravelry free patterns. I had a lot of feed back on how to keep the stockinette look without the curling. A few I had thought of myself such as garter stitch rows, I-cord bind off etc, but what resonated the most with what I was envisioning was to make a hem. I jumped on that idea and worked one purl row for the turning row when I had reached the desired length. Then I knitted six rows in a needle size one size smaller ( changed to 6 from 7). Then I used my own special technique binding off using Elizabeth Zimmerman’s sewn bind off while at the same time sewing the hem to the inside. This way it is less bulky and less work rather than binding off and then seaming. I had actually made a video about this three years ago, but had forgotten all about it. At that time I had worked on the interfacing of a button band. I made a new video today showing how to work this for a hem.

EZ sewn bind off and sewing combined/ Part 2 click on the link.

Here is also my previous, original video:
EZ sewn bind off and sewing combined.

So very pleased with the result.