Tea Leaves

I am a tea drinker. I don’t have anything against coffee—except the taste. It’s awful stuff. Yuck. Anyway, I’d been wondering what to call this design while finishing up my morning tea, and looked at the sweater again. It’s a t-shirt that’s covered with leaves. Hm. A tee shirt or a tea shirt? Covered with tea leaves? We have a winner.

Tee is boxy, and designed to be quite loose, or not. The tee shown is the second smallest size, and though it was designed to fit a 33-inch chest, it looks lovely on the model’s 36-inch frame. Because of the stretchy nature of knitting, this same sweater also fits my 40-inch (ish) chest nicely giving a more fitted look, because of the negative ease.

Tee is knit in the round from the hem straight up to the armholes, then stitches are added for the sleeves with a provisional cast on, and worked straight up to the shoulders, pausing only to shape the neckline. The provisional stitches are picked up for the flip side’s sleeves, and knitting continues. The only seaming on the entire sweater joins the top edges of the shoulders and sleeves.

• Yarn: DK weight; 825, 975, 1150 [1325, 1500, 1700] yards.
• Model: Baah! Sonoma in second to smallest size in Framboise: 234 yards in 100 grams; 100% superwash wool.
• Needles: Two sets US 8 (5 mm) circular needles for gauge, 24-inch; larger sizes may also want a 40-inch needle for sweater body and sleeves.
• Crochet hook: approximate US H (5 mm) for provisional cast on.
• Gauge: 18 sts and 25 rows to 4 inches in lace pattern, lightly blocked.
• Finished size: 32, 37.25, 42.75 [48, 53.25, 54.75] inches.
• Stitch instructions: Charted and written.