Your wish is my command (sometimes 🤪)

Why I spreadsheet-ed the living daylights out of my new Calm Night cami

As I look out on yet another dull, grey day where the temperature *might* reach 16C if we’re lucky, it is easy to forget that summer = warm (supposedly). Today’s the kind of day where a sleeveless turtleneck makes perfect sense, and last year I designed my Tonight Top for these exact occasions, of which there are many here in the UK. It became one of my best sellers, so there must be many such occasions elsewhere, too.

Some folks (who I assume live in the Arizona desert or someplace that a mild, damp summer is incomprehensible) said they couldn’t imagine a time where they’d want exposed arms and a covered neck. “It makes absolutely no sense!” I quote.

Sidenote: if there’s one thing designing has taught me, it’s that you can’t please everyone.

Now, I’d be reluctant to spend months writing a maxi dress pattern because 1 person says they’d like to see one. I design because I love it but also because it’s how I make a living, and I highly doubt a maxi dress would have wide enough appeal to make more than… £7.50? Correct me if I’m wrong. If so, I’ll get on it ASAP, might take me a while at 5’10…

Further sidenote: expressing any kind of financial motivation seems to be a taboo in the knitting world, where it is expected that one creates patterns purely for fun and shares them out of the goodness of their heart. I’ve often been told to just ‘design what makes me happy’ without a care for whether it’ll sell or not. There are definitely more complex sentiments around women’s ‘hobbies’ and anti-capitalist idealism at play here, but I’ll delve into that one another day…

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On this occasion, I agree that a lower neck version would be sensible for warmer days, as I have actually experienced real sun on my skin in the past and sometimes even in England. Who’d have thought! I also understand there are many hot places on the planet therefore a loose V-neck top may be of use to more than 3 people. I also am really bloody pleased with this armhole shaping and edging and wanted to use them again, to be perfectly honest. Would be a shame to see those short rows go to waste!

Original Tonight Top pattern, inspired by Diana's post-divorce wardrobe. If it's good enough for Princess Di, it's good enough for me

Speaking of edgings, double knitting is having an (extended) moment in the knitstagram world, and I’m most definitely not complaining. A few years ago it was nowhere, now it is everywhere. One cannot scroll a single page of #knit without encountering a double knit buttonband or 6.

For the uninitiated: ‘double knitting’ is a technique of creating two layers of stocking stitch fabric at once, often used along the edge of a piece of fabric. It sounds complicated, but is essentially a variation on ‘knit 1, slip 1’, so is far simpler than you’d think.

I have a love-hate relationship with knitwear design trends - there are some bandwagons I refuse to jump on as despite their popularity, they make no sense to me.

Double knitting, though… that I can get on board with. Any technique that elevates an item from home-made to high-end boutique is a winner in my book. I don’t believe it’s perfect for every item and can definitely be overused, but there is no technique quite like it for creating a clean, polished look.

I’d recently finished my Calm Down Sweater when planning designs for Summer, so pinching its double knit neckband to sit alongside the double knit armhole edgings seemed only logical. Both feature integrated short row shaping to improve the fit - you can’t wrap a flat piece of fabric around a corner and expect it to lie flat, after all. And edgings that don’t lie flat might just be my biggest knitting bugbear of all time.

Obviously the V-neck Tonight Top (working title) became the Calm Night Cami at this point. Creative, as always.

So the edgings lie flat, the armholes cover your bra, and the final element I knew I had to nail was the depth and shape of the V-neck.

• Too high and the proportions are thrown off (I think it gives the illusion that your boobs are lower than they actually are, which, let’s face it, isn’t anybody’s ideal)

• Too low and you’re forced to add a layer underneath, disrupting the clean line

• Too wide and the straps fall off your shoulders / look insubstantial

• Too narrow and the width-to-height of exposed skin feels off. (I can’t for the life of me think of a better way to phrase that… can only hope it makes sense)

In my humble opinion, anyway. I have my ideas of what looks good and they may not be universal. 😊

Trial and error has taught me that my perfect V neck is not actually a V (ie. comprised of 2 straight lines), it’s somewhere between a U and a V. Still has a definite corner at the bottom, but with varying rates of shaping to create a smooth curve. But not too much of a curve because I don’t like most scoop necks either.

Picky, me?

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I fear I sound like quite the Negative Nellie here but please interpret it as a fussiness over V necks rather than a negativity of any other kind. Promise I do love knitting and designing and knitters with every fibre of my being, pun very much intended. ❤️

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The neckline needed to appear to hit at the same point and be roughly the same shape across the sizes, despite the wildly different shoulder-to-bust ratios of a 28-62” size range. Which calls for multiple increase rates and varying neck-to-armhole depth ratios, too.

If all of this sounds like a load of fuss you can’t be bothered with then fear not, as I have done the fuss for you! I spreadsheet-ed the living daylights out of that neckline, resulting in a handy ticksheet with armhole and neck increases written out row by row. You needn’t concern yourself with whether you’re increasing every 2nd or 4th and what needs to line up with what, you just need to remember to tick a box at the end of every other row.

Said tick sheet went down well with my lovely test knitters who have also said they’re all pleased with the fit. Providing nobody is lying to me to save my feelings, we have a finished cami that fits well across a range of shapes and sizes. Hallelujah! Thank you all!

Oh and there are optional bust darts included but I can’t be bothered writing a paragraph about those and need to go put a chicken in the oven. Hope you like the pattern and don’t forget to use code CALMITDOWN for 10% off until midnight BST on Wednesday 5th June.

Happy knitting!

Lily x