The Basic Organic Cotton Tee by Cleome Smith has a clean, understated shape that works easily with shorts, skirts, or jeans, and can take you from summer right into fall. Like Cleome, we knit ours with Blue Sky Fibers Organic Cotton Worsted. We chose Periwinkle, a soft blue-violet shade that shows off the simplicity of the design beautifully.
About the Yarn
Blue Sky Fibers Organic Cotton Worsted is a smooth, lightly plied yarn made from 100% certified organic cotton. Each 100-gram skein contains 150 yards.
Cotton yarn sometimes has a reputation for feeling firm or tiring to knit, but this one often surprises people. It is unusually soft in the skein and creates a comfortable fabric with a beautiful natural matte finish.
Design Details
The Basic Organic Cotton Tee is knit seamlessly from the top down with raglan shaping. The body is worked in the round, so most of the project is uncomplicated stockinette knitting.
Instead of ribbing, the pattern uses simply finished edges at the neckline, short sleeves, and hem. That absence of ribbing is an important part of the design: it gives the tee its clean, minimal appearance and keeps the focus on the shape and fabric.
The pattern includes instructions for four yarn weights—fingering, sport, DK, and worsted—so it can be used to create several different versions. We followed the worsted-weight instructions for our Organic Cotton Worsted sample.
The tee is designed with approximately ¾ to 3 inches of positive ease at the bust. That creates a relatively neat fit rather than an oversized silhouette, which works well with the more structured fabric produced by worsted-weight cotton.
What You’ll Need
Pattern: Basic Organic Cotton Tee by Cleome Smith
Sizes: S (M, L, XL, 2X, 3X, 4X), designed to fit bust measurements of 30–32 (34–36, 38–40, 42–44, 46–48, 50–52, 54–56) inches.
Yarn: Blue Sky Fibers Organic Cotton Worsted, 100% organic cotton, 100 g / 150 yds (137 m): 4 (5, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10) hanks; shown in Periwinkle.
Worsted-weight yardage:
530 (620, 720, 870, 1,020, 1,200, 1,400) yards
Needles:
US 6 and US 7 circular needles in 16-inch and 32-inch lengths, or the sizes needed to obtain gauge
Gauge:
20 stitches and 30 rounds = 4 inches in stockinette stitch worked in the round on the larger needles
Always choose your size and purchase yarn according to the pattern’s measurements and yardage requirements. We also recommend buying a little extra when your required yardage falls close to the total yardage in your skeins.
Why You'll Love It
- The top-down construction makes it easier to adjust the body or sleeve length.
- Most of the tee is simple stockinette worked in the round.
- The worsted-weight yarn makes it quicker to knit than many summer tops.
- Organic cotton creates a soft, comfortable fabric without wool.
- The clean design is easy to wear and lets the yarn and color do the work.
Ready to Cast On?
Choose from the wide range of colors in Blue Sky Fibers Organic Cotton Worsted, or visit us at our South Street shop and we’ll help you select a size, calculate your yardage, and find the right needles.
And when your tee is finished, tag us @loopyarn so we can see it!
