Knit Hikari Tee by yamagara for amirisu

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I knit this heathered blue Hikari tee for our mom. I have already knit a Strange Brew sweater for our dad, a Compass pullover for Tomiko, and sewed a shirt for Karlos. Now it is our mom’s turn!

The Hikari Tee is a beautiful tee that has a fun and interesting construction. This top-down tee begins with an I-Cord on the upper back. You add shaping using German Short Rows on both sides of this I-Cord to create the v-shaped neck opening, shoulders and the back. You then join the front left and right pieces to creat a neat v-neck. Then you join front and back pieces and knit the piece in the round below the arm openings. Part of the textured fabric with twisted ribs and seed stitch pattern is knitted from charts. Arm openings are finished with I-Cord Bind- Off, worked in the round using the Magic Loop Method or using DPNs. The only change I made was to knit 10 rows instead of 3 rows to slightly elongate the sleeves.

The join of the left and right front shoulders is so neat. The point then elegantly turns into the front vertical design of purls and twisted rib. I found the increases to make the front and back seed stitch triangles very intuitive. Initially I was worried that I would have to carry around the charts to keep me on track. However, after a few increases, I was able to just carry on. So it was not quite potato-chip knitting, but close!

I knit the size XL, which has a 47.25″ bust circumference. Our mom’s bust circumference is 45″, so this allows for some positive ease. I used 2.75 mm and 3.0 mm to get gauge. Although the pattern calls for fingering weight yarn, I used Cascade 220 Sport Superwash instead. The Summer Sky Heather colourway has a lovely blue colour with tones of grey, which gives the knitted fabric a beautiful depth. The colour also nicely complements our mom’s blue eyes. She was too shy to model it for the internet, however, so I’m wearing it here.

I had wanted to knit something for our mom for quite a while. She runs hot so she resisted me making her a wool sweater. She also didn’t have any specific wants for sewn tops. Thankfully, when I showed her the design for Hikari, she said ok. The pattern calls for a fingering weight yarn with a wool, cotton, silk, and linen blend. I didn’t have that, but I did have enough wool yarn in this gorgeous blue colour. It’s a superwash merino yarn, which means that it is super soft. Our mom is very sensitive to itchy wools, so this is the best I could do! Caring for this Hikari will also be easy, as it is machine-washable and dryer-safe.

Get the pattern for the Hikari Tee on Ravelry here.