Brickyard

Brickyard Tee by Kristina Smiley

What is Being Made

The Brickyard is a two-color open shoulder keyhole style summer tee designed by Kristina Smiley. This knitted top features a contemporary silhouette with an open shoulder design and keyhole neckline detail, making it an ideal lightweight garment for warm weather wear. The design celebrates racing heritage and nostalgia, inspired by the designer's personal connection to the Indianapolis 500 and the Winchester Speedway in Indiana.

Construction Method

The Brickyard tee is worked flat in two separate pieces and then seamed together. This construction approach allows for precise shaping and easier management of the stitch patterns across the garment. Working flat rather than in the round provides greater control when executing the detailed colorwork and stitch pattern transitions throughout the design.

Stitches and Stitch Patterns

This design incorporates two primary stitch patterns that create visual interest and texture:

• Garter Stitch: A fundamental knitting stitch created by knitting every row, producing a reversible fabric with horizontal ridges. Garter stitch provides structure and stability to the garment.
• Checkerboard Mesh Stitch: A decorative open stitch pattern that creates a checkerboard visual effect combined with mesh openings. This stitch pattern adds an airy, breathable quality appropriate for a summer tee while creating geometric visual interest through the two-color colorwork.

The combination of these stitches allows the designer to balance solid structural areas with open, mesh sections that enhance the summery aesthetic of the piece.

Colorwork and Design Details

The Brickyard features a two-color knitting technique, incorporating contrasting yarn colors throughout the design to enhance the checkerboard and mesh patterns. The color blocking creates visual depth and emphasizes the geometric nature of the stitch patterns used.

Yarn and Materials

This pattern is designed for 4-ply yarn weight, also known as sport weight yarn. This lighter yarn weight is ideal for creating a breathable, drape-friendly summer garment that maintains structure without excessive bulk. The 4-ply weight allows for detailed stitch definition in both the garter stitch and checkerboard mesh sections.

Skill Level

The Brickyard is rated as an intermediate difficulty pattern. Knitters should be comfortable with fundamental knitting techniques and ready to tackle two-color colorwork, multiple stitch patterns, and garment seaming. The combination of garter stitch and mesh stitch patterns, along with the two-color construction, requires solid foundational skills and attention to pattern details.