Knititude

Roanoke Tank

The Roanoke Tank, another design from Knitted Tanks and Tunics, is unique in its design and construction, but also showcases a very special yarn: Claudia Hand Painted Yarns' Drama. Drama is 100% linen, sport weight, machine washable AND dryable (more on that later), and it also comes in some absolutely stunning colorways, from subtly to boldly variegated. For Roanoke, I chose one of each type of colorway: the body of the tank is worked in Silver Shimmer (subtle shades of white), while the front and back panels are worked in Collards and Grits (love that name!), a gorgeous combination of blues, greens, neutrals and white. 

I have to admit that the yarn did not inspire the design. I had been playing with the idea of building a garment around an upper front medallion of some sort, decided it would be a nice way to showcase a variegated yarn, then decided to use a more subtly colored yarn for the body, and went looking for a yarn that had those colorway options. I also wanted the body to be light and flowy, so that narrowed my choices, and then I found the perfect yarn! 

The front and back diamond panels are worked first, and then stitches are picked up from the lower two sides for the body, and from the upper two sides for the straps. I used a smaller needle size for the diamond panels, to keep the garter stitch fabric from getting loose and sloppy, while for the body I used larger needles, to create that light and airy feel. I made several different sizes of diamonds, trying to find the largest size that would work for the design: If it was too large, then the upper point of the diamond would extend up into the neck area, and the body wouldn't start high enough to be extended around the sides, but if it was too small, it wouldn't look right.

Like with the Bellingham Tank, I used Ofelia, my mannequin, to help me figure out some construction details. I used some strips of a lightweight knit T-shirt for the straps, to fine-tune the placement of the diamonds on the front and back (see above photo-- in fact I still like the look of the fabric so much, I'm wondering if this could be turned into a mixed media top....). I was happy to realize that I could fit a larger diamond on the back, but when I started to work on grading the pattern for different sizes, I unhappily came to the conclusion that I couldn't make the design work for bust sizes larger than around 45" (114 cm). The body stitches come from a combination of stitches picked up from the diamonds' edges, increases, and stitches cast on for the underarms, and I just wasn't confident that the sides of the tank would stay up high enough in sizes larger than 45". 

If you haven't worked with 100% linen yarn before, I'll be frank: it's not pleasant. It doesn't stretch and it feels rough. But the finished fabric is lovely-- with time and wear it gets much softer-- especially if it's machine washed and dried. So for this pattern, the gauge actually specifies to do just that!

(1st, 2nd and 4th photos, copyright Tom Moore Studios)

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Yuma Tunic - Knititude

Sayre Tank

The Sayre Tank came about because I was trying to create a design that used a minimal amount of yarn-- hence the lace panels at the top of the front and back, the close fit, and the slightly cropped length. (All photos copyright Tom Moore Studios.)

It is also one of three designs in Knitted Tanks and Tunics that I previously published. (I was contractually allowed by Stackpole Books, the publisher, to include five previously published designs.) The blog post I wrote about the original version of Sayre, the Katama Tank, has a lot of information about the design process, which I won't repeat here. 

But I do want to add some information about the yarn I used, Valley Yarns Southwick. The Valley Yarns line is exclusive to WEBS, one of my favorite yarn stores, in Northampton, MA. Southwick is a blend of pima cotton and bamboo, and straddles the line between DK and worsted weight. For the Sayre Tank, I used US 7/4.5 mm needles, at the larger end of the recommended needle size range, to get increased drape in the stockinette sections, and a more open fabric in the lace sections. This yarn has a soft hand and a pretty sheen from the bamboo, but it also has good stitch definition and wears well. (In fact, I liked the yarn so much that I used it for a pullover I designed for interweave Knits Spring 2015, the Honey Pullover.)

 

Bellingham Tank

photo copyright Tom Moore Studios

The process I used to design the Bellingham Tank was very unusual for me! But then it's also quite different from the other designs in Knitted Tanks and Tunics: I love to use cabled, lace and textured stitch patterns, and I prefer to work in the round, but Bellingham is worked only in stockinette stitch, and it's worked flat.

photo copyright Tom Moore Studios

For Bellingham, I knew I wanted to end up with a top that wrapped around both sides and then narrowed into pieces (I thought of them as wings) that crossed to the opposite shoulder. I was hoping to end up with a top that could be worn with the crossed pieces on the front as well as the back (more on that later). So the first step was to come up with knit-able shapes for all of the pieces, or even better, a single knit-able piece (I think I had a vague mental picture of something that resembled the Bat-Signal).

photo copyright Tom Moore Studios

To do this I enlisted the aid of Ofelia, my mannequin. Instead of muslin I used old T-shirts, to better approximate the weight and drape of knitted fabric; I cut them into large pieces, draped, overlapped, and pinned them on Ofelia. I trimmed the edges away until what remained was close to what I wanted for the final top. Then I unwrapped everything and laid it flat on the floor, ending up with a single large piece with a wide, curved bottom edge and two curved wings; the spaces between the center and wings would form the armholes.

But when I tried to figure out how to knit this shape in one piece, I quickly decided that not only would it require complicated shaping with decreases and short rows, but it would also be very difficult to grade and size accurately. After measuring various parts, I decided that the center section could be worked as one piece, with the lower part worked in several identical wedges and the upper part shaped with additional decreases, while the side sections could be worked separately. Instead of seaming these pieces together, I opted to pick up the stitches for each side section from the side edges of the center section, leaving the only seaming at the shoulders. This also allowed for some customization of fit, since the side pieces can be easily shortened or lengthened.

photo copyright Tom Moore Studios

I was delighted to find that the yarn I had chosen, Fibra Natura Good Earth from Universal Yarn, was the perfect match for this design. It's a worsted-weight cotton-linen blend, and I worked it on slightly larger needles than suggested, so the fabric has a nice drape, with enough weight to give the flared bottom edge of the top a little swing. It also comes in a pretty range of colors,has a lovely subtle sheen, and is rather inexpensive (and it's machine washable!).

As for being able to wear Bellingham with the crossed pieces in front? I'm not sure I succeeded in pulling that off. I think the issue was making the armholes deep enough so that the side pieces could be pulled across to the opposite side without pulling too tight under the arms-- this created enough wiggle room that the top doesn't necessarily stay put in one position on the body, perhaps leading to too much exposure here or there (definitely less of an issue with the crossed pieces in the back). So I was able to arrange the finished tank on Giulia such that the front coverage was skimpy but adequate (see above photo), but if Giulia were walking around in a windstorm, there would certainly be potential for a wardrobe malfunction! In conclusion, I would say, try it on that way, but whether it can realistically worn with the crossed pieces in front will depend on individual fit. 

 

Yuma Tunic

The Yuma Tunic may seem impractical-- one-shouldered?? All lace?? Balancing a baby on one hip while wearing Yuma may not be for everyone.... On the other hand, it's simpler than you might think to knit, it's quite flattering, and you can use it as a layering piece, over a tank or a t-shirt.

This tunic is quite simple in construction: it's really an angled tube, with one side of the tube separated into front and back and shaped for the armhole, and then joined at the top for the shoulder. The diagonal hem and neckline are created by the natural biasing of the lace pattern. After I noticed this biasing while making a swatch, I tried another swatch, changing the direction of the decreases and yarnovers, and when the fabric slanted in the other direction, I got the idea of using the two mirror image lace patterns to create the front and back of a top.

I found a really special yarn for Yuma: Classic Elite Yarns (CEY) Firefly, a DK-weight blend of linen and viscose. The linen has a slightly rough, dry texture, and some fine fibers which give the yarn a slight halo, almost as if it had mohair or angora in it (but it doesn't!), while the viscose adds drape and sheen. And the colors are stunning; I decided on Bronze, a rich dark gold, but it was hard to choose between Bronze, Hyacinth (a metallic gray-violet) and Mermaid (silvery teal). For this design, it's worked on larger needles than suggested on the ball band (US 7 instead of US 5) to create even more drape, creating a light and airy fabric.

I used CEY yarns for two other projects in Knitted Tanks and Tunics-- Provence for the Sedalia Tank and Sanibel for the Odessa Tunic-- but they are very different. Provence is a classic DK-weight plied cotton yarn, with a firm hand and great stitch definition, but not a lot of drape, while Sanibel is a very drapey, worsted weight tape yarn made of a blend of cotton and viscose. My blog post about the Odessa Tunic goes into more detail about Sanibel yarn, and I plan to post about the Sedalia Tank and Provence yarn soon.

(All photos copyright Tom Moore Studios)

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