Spontaneous summer tops!

I am happy to report that I finished the Seleste tee a few days after my last post. I was on holiday down South and the weather was really hot (the temperatures were over 30 degrees Celsius, which is a LOT for where I live!), so I decided to let it dry in the garden. I was a bit worried about the sunlight bleaching it and also I didn't have a blocking mat, so I had to improvise a bit and hide it under the lilac bush:

And here is the finished garment! Gorgeous, no?

After finishing the Seleste, I wasted no time in casting on another summer top. I still had three skeins of Schachenmayr Catania in the colourway 'Mandarine' left and just before my holiday began, I saw someone post a picture of the Heart on Fire top in the Drops Workshop FB group and decided then and there that I needed to make one for myself as well. I think I did a pretty good job of it! The only mods I made were making the body a few cm longer, omitting the garter stitch edge and using the 3-way bind off to attach the straps to the back, rather than sewing them. 

Please enjoy this picture of the finished top and my cousin's orchid: 

I actually ran out of yarn as I was making the top and had to order a fourth skein. I decided to use the webshop of the yarn store where I bought the first three skeins from, because Catania Denim has gone out of production and I hoped they would have another skein from the same dyelot. But since I thought paying the delivery fee for just one skein would be silly, I ordered four skeins of Catania Solid in the gorgeous Gold colourway. I was actually a bit embarrassed and felt a bit like a yarn hoarder and didn't even have a plan for the yarn until the delightful Summer Nights Cami from Ivana Sturm popped up on my IG feed! 

It's a pretty simple design, but it has some elements that I think make it really clever. For one, the designer has used different sized needles for body shaping instead of increases and decreases (3.5 mm, 3.0 mm and 2.5 mm)! You can see how the gauge changes on the blocked garment (and please ignore the weird lighting, the sun was already low-ish when I took this photo):

The stitch count is the same for the entire body, it's just the needles that changed!

I also really like the cabled straps and Ivana's neat method for doing the decreases for the armholes and the V-neck. I also really like the yarn! And this gold colourway is actually stunning and it looks like I am knitting with an actual sunbeam! I will post some pictures of the top in better lighting once it's dry for sure. 

Also don't ask me how I'm getting on with auntie's cardigan.