I love wearing handknits all year round, but, I live in Boston, so summer is tricky. When it’s 85 degrees and wicked humid, there’s no way I’m wearing sleeves or anything made out of wool. Now, enter the Take Wing Shell by Holli Yeoh, a lightweight knitted top that I can actually wear in the summer!
I knitted mine with Knit Picks Lindy Chain, a fingering-weight blend of 70% linen and 30% Pima cotton. Between the plant fibers and the lightweight chainette construction, the finished fabric is wonderfully breathable. I’ve already worn this top on warm days and it feels great, even if you get a little sweaty.
I also love how polished this top looks. It’s totally work-appropriate (assuming you wear a cami under it!) and it looks especially pretty on Zoom if you’re a remote worker, because the lace detail is close to the neckline, so it shows on camera. Plus, when the weather cools down, I can easily toss a blazer over it and keep wearing it into the fall.
The Take Wing Summer Sweater Knitting Pattern
I’ve knitted another Holli Yeoh design before, the Paxton Shell, and loved it, so I was excited to try Take Wing.
The sweater itself looks fairly simple in the photos, but when I first opened the pattern, the instructions looked pretty intimidating. Once I actually started knitting, though, I realized the pattern isn’t especially difficult at all. It’s just incredibly detailed and thorough! So, yay!
Holli walks you through every part of the construction carefully, so there are a lot of instructions on the page. In practice, I found it pretty straightforward to follow.
The one part that did test my patience was the double-knit hem. It took a loooooong time to knit and used almost an entire ball of yarn. It’s a lovely detail and gives the bottom of the sweater a really polished finish, so I’m glad I did it.
That said, if I were short on time, patience, or yardage, I think I could happily substitute a normal 1×1 ribbed hem and still end up with a beautiful top. Knitting is supposed to be fun. You are allowed to take shortcuts!
What Yarn Can You Use Instead of Knit Picks Lindy Chain?
Here comes the bad news: Knit Picks has discontinued the colored versions of Lindy Chain.
It’s too bad because I really loved knitting with it. The linen and cotton make it cool and breathable, while the chainette construction creates a very light fabric with beautiful drape. Unfortunately, if you want to make your own Take Wing Shell, you can’t just pop over to Knit Picks and order the same blush pink yarn I used.
But! You have options.
Knit It with Bare Lindy Chain
Knit Picks still sells Bare Lindy Chain, which is the same 70% linen and 30% Pima cotton chainette yarn without the dye. So, the easiest solution is to embrace the natural color and knit yourself a beautiful neutral summer top. (It’s also more affordable than the colored stuff was!)
Or you could get a little crazy and dye it yourself, but I know next to nothing about yarn-dying, so you’re on your own there. I can tell you that you can’t dye cotton/linen with Kool-Aid or Wilton icing dye – those methods only work on wool. I know this because I was going to suggest that solution, but when I looked for a tutorial for you, I got the bad news.
Try Knit Picks Comfy Fingering
My other pick would be Knit Picks Comfy Fingering.
You may already know that I love Comfy yarn. I pretty much exclusively knit my baby blankets with Comfy because it’s incredibly soft, breathable, easy to care for, and comes in lots of colors. (See a bunch of things I’ve knitted from Comfy here!!)
Comfy Fingering is a 75% Pima cotton and 25% acrylic blend, so it wouldn’t make exactly the same sweater as the one I am modeling. Lindy Chain gets some of its lightness, crispness, and drape from the linen and its chainette construction, while Comfy has a softer, bouncier texture.
I suspect a Take Wing Shell knitted in Comfy would feel a little more substantial and drape differently. That’s not a bad thing, but it will be a different top. You could definitely still wear a shell knitted from Comfy on a hot day, but I doubt it would be as good for humid weather as the linen blend.
So, there you have it! If you’ve been looking for a summer sweater knitting pattern that won’t leave you sweating through your beautiful handknits, Take Wing is definitely worth a look.
And if you want to see how mine came together, including all my in-progress photos, construction notes, and feelings about that very, very long double-knit hem, check out my WIP page for this project!
yarn details
Knit Picks Lindy Chain in Blush (discontinued color)
Fingering Weight
70% Linen & 30% Pima Cotton
180 yards / 50 grams
project details
pattern: “Take Wing Shell” by Holli Yeoh (purchase at Knit Picks or Ravelry)
size knit: 41.5” bust
needles: US size 3 (3.25 mm) for the trims and size 4 (3.5 mm) circular needles for the bulk of the project. (The smaller needles were the basic purple cable nickel-plated fixed circs from Knit Picks (discontinued) and for the larger needles I used the Sunstruck wood tips from my interchangeable needle set.
gauge: 26.5 stitches x 35 rows in stockinette on size 4 needles, measured after blocking and first wear
yarn used: 4.2 balls [756 yards (210 grams)]
finished size: bust diameter (laid flat): 19”, back length: 21”, front Length: 19”, armhole depth: 8.5”
duration: February to July, 2026
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