I conceived this tunic when swatching some Elizabeth Lavold Hempathy that a friend of mine gave me - colors that are bright enough to evoke warmth and sun, but not so bright as to be unflattering. This friend has good taste in color! For warm-weather items, I prefer simple and comfortable over ornate, and pictured something striped, with a bit of waist shaping, that hits at the bottom of the hip for full tummy coverage (something that I find problematic with summer shirts)!

The tunic is knit in the round to the armholes, where the front and back are divided and worked separately to the shoulders. After the shoulder seams are sewn, stitches are picked up along the neck and a slouchy cowl is knit in the round. The cowl is edged with a few rounds of beads, which serve as both adornment and as weight to keep the cowl nice and drapey. The beads at the neck are echoed in a round of beads at the hem.