Contour Tee In Santolina
Knitters often work to hide construction details in their garments, but our Contour Tee in Santolina puts this supporting role at center stage!
Here, the Contour Tee’s armhole and shoulder shaping moves from the wings to the spotlight, creating contour lines that carve in a flattering zig, then zag. Add little capped sleeves and a split hem to this in-the-round bottom-up knit, and you have an entirely new spin on the classic tee!
The real star of the show is our Santolina yarn, a unique and lovely mix of 70% organically grown cotton, 20% rayon from bamboo, and 10% hemp. Filling in the existing palette of gentle hues, Santolina’s six punchy new colors include this Teal Tide, whose deep blue is like a shimmering secret cove.
Santolina’s heathery beauty and soft, gently textured hand knit up like your old-but-new favorite tee… Bravo!
Yarn lovers, if you adore the yarn used in this project, you’ll love exploring all of our other yarn collections! Discover over 45 thoughtfully designed yarns in nearly every natural fiber and in every spectacular color you can imagine. Only available here at Purl Soho’s online yarn store, where every skein is created with care and your creativity in mind!
Originally designed for Purl Soho by Adam Aronowitz.
Share your progress and connect with the community by tagging your pics with #PurlSoho, #PurlSohoBusyHands, #PurlSohoContourTee and #PurlSohoSantolina. We can’t wait to see what you make!
Materials
- 3 (4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7) skeins of Purl Soho’s Santolina, 70% organically grown cotton, 20% rayon from bamboo, 10% hemp. Each skein of this fingering weight yarn is 328 yards/ 100 grams; approximately 984 (1115, 1280, 1405, 1580, 1695, 1930, 2070) yards required. We used the color Teal Tide.
- US 3 (3.25 mm), 32-, 40- or 47-inch circular needles, depending on size you are making
- Spare 24-inch or longer circular needles in US 3 (or up to several sizes smaller)
- US 3, 16-inch circular needles
- Stitch markers
- Cable stitch holder
- Stitch holders or scrap yarn
- A Contour Tee Pattern
GAUGE
26 stitches and 36 rounds = 4 inches in stockinette stitch
SIZES
38¼ (41¾, 45½, 49¼, 53, 56½, 60¼, 64)
To fit actual chest circumference of 32–36 (36–40, 40–43, 43–47, 47–51, 51–54, 54–58, 58–62) inches, with 2–6 inches of ease
- Finished Chest Circumference: 38¼ (41¾, 45½, 49¼, 53, 56½, 60¼, 64) inches
- Finished Length From Shoulder To Bottom Edge: 24 (24¾, 26¼, 26¾, 28¼, 28½, 30½, 30¾) inches
- Finished Sleeve Length From Underarm To Cuff: 1¼ (1¼, 1½, 1½, 1½, 2¼, 2¼, 2¼) inches
Sample: The sweater pictured here is size 38¼, worn with 4 inches of ease.
PATTERN
The Contour Tee Pattern is available for purchase as a PDF download only.
LEARN ABOUT SANTOLINA + ALL OUR BEAUTIFUL YARNS
A wonderfully wild mix of 70% organically grown cotton, 20% bamboo, and 10% hemp, lovely Santolina brings its hearty character and lustrous finish to this knit. A machine washable, two-ply fingering-weight yarn with a super soft touch, try Santolina… You’ll love it!
More Free Knitting Patterns
- Be sure to explore our collection of (mostly free!) Santolina knitting patterns and cast on!
More Fingering-Weight Yarns
- Shop our entire collection of fingering-weight yarn
- If you want to use a different yarn, be sure to take the time to get the correct gauge. Need help? Check our All About Gauge Tutorial!
More Yarns With Similar Fibers
- Shop cotton yarn
- Shop bamboo yarn
- Shop hemp yarn
Looking for more inspiration? Explore all of our free knitting patterns and knitting tutorials, buy one of our many knitting kits and yarn bundles, and shop for beautiful yarn. We have over 35 gorgeous natural fiber yarns in 100’s of magnificent colors, designed to bring integrity, beauty, and joy to your next knitting project and only available at Purl Soho!
I purchased Burnished to make this tee and the pattern showing the tee in white. I prefer the tee as shown in santolina. Are the instructions for number of stitches and rows the same in this version as they are for the Burnish version?
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for reaching out. There are no changes to the stitch counts and rows for this pattern! The only changes are a few formatting changes to how the rows are represented and changes to the materials section, since it’s in a new yarn. Hope this helps!
All the best,
Lili
I love this top! I have 70 year old arms so I wondered if the sleeves might be adjusted. I see they are a cap sleeve and lengthening them might not work.
Hi Cathy,
Thanks for reaching out. Actually, these sleeves are pretty easy to adjust in length! After working the SHAPE SLEEVE CAP and SHAPE SLEEVE sections, all you’ll need to do is continue knitting in stockinette until they reach the length you want. You can also work decreases as you go along, so that the sleeves fit closer to the form of your arm as they get longer. Hope this helps!
All the best,
Lili
I am going to start the sleeves soon and notice the instructions say to join for working in the round, but then the following rows indicate knit and purl for the rows. If I am working in the round, isn’t a wrong side row a knit row, too?
Hi Monica,
Thanks for reaching out. The sleeves are knit in the round, but they begin with short rows, in order to create the capped shape! So you’ll be working back and forth in short rows until the SHAPE SLEEVE section. I hope this helps clarify things!
All the best,
Lili
This is a great pattern! Love Santolina!
I am thinking about lengthening the sleeves as well(thanks for the solution in the post above!). I am going to knit the first size which calls for 3 skeins. Does the short sleeved version take the complete three skeins (so I would need 4 for longer sleeves)?
I would also prefer the bottom edge to not roll, do you have suggestion of a neater edge so that the bottom detail does not puff out and that the actual edge doesn’t curl?
Hi Carol,
Thanks for reaching out! The smallest size uses exactly 3 skeins, so I would definitely suggest purchasing a 4th skein to make longer sleeves! In answer to your question about the edge, I’d recommend doing some sort of stitch that lays flat for a few rows along the bottom. For example, garter stitch or any sort of ribbing would work great and prevent the roll from happening!
All the best,
Lili
Good to know, thanks!
Hi. Will this pattern work with the cattail silk yarn? Thank you for the info.
Hello,
Thanks for reaching out with your question. Our Cattail Silk would be a lovely yarn for this pattern! I recommend knitting swatches with Cattail Silk before casting on your project to be sure that you are getting the 26 stitches and 36 rounds = 4 inches that the pattern calls for. You can find our tutorial All About Gauge here!
Happy knitting!
All the best,
Carly
Thank you for your input. I will definitely check the gauge.
Hi. I plan to buy this pattern. Does the hemp in Santolina make it scratchy?
Also, re my colors: I’m a “summer” (light cool colors). Is the teal very green, as opposed to blue?
Hi Robin!
Thank you for your questions. We’re excited to hear you have your eye on this pattern! Santolina is a very smooth and velvety yarn, so I would not describe it as scratchy at all. As for the tone of Teal Tide, it definitely leans more blue than green, however Ice Pond might be another color that catches your eye, for a cool-toned light blue color!
I hope this helps with your project planning!
All the best,
Margaret
Hi – I’m knitting this with Burnish and am shaping the sleeve cap, but there’s no mention of where the short-row markers are placed –
Thanks!
Hi Willa,
Thanks for writing in! When you’re shaping the sleeve cap, there will only be two stitch markers present: one at the center top of the sleeve, and then the end-of-round marker at the center of the underarm. The pattern instructs you to place the wrap + turns in relation to the previous wrap, so there aren’t any stitch markers needed for each short row!
All the best,
Lili
Thanks so much – that’s a great help.
I’m confused about the “Divide Front and Back” instructions. It says to bind off # stitches, removing marker 2 times. Does this mean you bind off at each side marker that we have on the needles? In my particular size I would bind off 5 stitches before and after each marker, for a total of 20 stitches.
Hi Pamela,
Yes, your interpretation is correct! These bound-off stitches will eventually become the underarms of each sleeve. Hope this helps clarify things!
All the best,
Lili
I purchased the Contour Tee pattern several years ago, and now plan to knit it again in Santolina. Can I follow the directions for the Burnish yarn that I used originally? The Quartz yarn also caught my eye. Which is better for this pattern.
Thank you
Hi Theresa,
Thanks for asking! There are no changes to the stitch counts and rows for this pattern! The only changes are a few formatting changes to how the rows are represented and changes to the materials section, since it’s in a new yarn. Santolina and Quartz would both make great options for this pattern! I’d recommend Santolina for a more breathable summer project and quartz if you’d like to add a bit more warmth. I hope this helps!
Happy knitting,
Gavriella
I’m looking forward to knitting this lovely top, but I prefer German short rows to wrap and turn. Will it affect the design at all to swap them out?
Hi Pam,
That shouldn’t be a problem at all! This pattern would work fine with German short rows!
All the best,
Gavriella
Hi, need some guidance with this pattern. I am at divide front/back, my two markers are at 124 stitches, I only have two markers in place. How many markers should there be? I do not understand the instructions, please help!
Hi Lisa,
You’re correct that you should have 2 markers at this point of the pattern! You should have a beginning/end-of-round marker and then another one directly opposite that on the other side. When you work the Division Round, the stitches you bind off around these markers will become the underarm stitches.
All the best,
Lili