The focal point of the Galena Tank is the unusual lace yoke, which is worked sideways, not in the round. I found the original stitch pattern of lace circles in Barbara Walker's Third Treasury of Knitting Patterns awhile ago, and after swatching, made some changes to the stitch pattern so that the circle outlines stand out more clearly. I also placed them on a background of garter stitch.
I was thinking of combining this stitch pattern with a lace border in a garter-based shawl, but never got around to completing the design. Then I got the idea of working a single column of the lace circles, adding short rows to shape the column into a curve, and turning the resulting curved strip into a yoke. I decided to keep the rest of the top simple, and found a very special yarn, Quince & Co.'s Willet, that shows off the textured stitches of the yoke AND works into a light, smooth fabric for the body. It's made of a responsibly sourced cotton that is grown, spun and dyed in the USA.
The other unusual feature of the yoke, besides the lace stitch, is the duplicate stitch method that I used to graft the ends. When using this method for a circular item such as a yoke (or a cowl), you cast on in a contrast color waste yarn, work a couple of rows, then join the main yarn and work to one row before the end. You then cut the main yarn leaving a long tail for grafting (very important!), join the contrast color yarn, work a couple of rows, and bind off. Next, you thread a tapestry needle with the long yarn tail and with the contrast color rows as a guide, use duplicate stitch to graft the ends of the yoke together. Sound complicated? This is a case where a picture (or better yet, a video) is indeed worth a thousand words.
If you knit a lot of socks, you are probably pretty comfortable with using Kitchener stitch for simple stockinette, but the duplicate stitch method is a wonderful way to graft lace or other stitch patterns, because there are no complicated grafting charts to read! And since there are no live stitches hanging loose, there is no fear of dropping stitches, AND you can readjust the tension of your grafted stitches as much as you like, or pull the graft stitches out and redo them if you make a mistake. Once you are happy with the graft row, you carefully cut away the waste yarn stitches.
After finishing Galena's yoke, stitches are picked up from the bottom edge and worked down for the body. There are some short rows to shape the top of the front and back to the curve of the yoke, but after that, the rest of the body is pretty simple. After you reach the bottom of the armholes, it's worked in the round; some waist shaping and a simple rolled hem, and you're done.
By the way, this tank was not named after the mineral, but after the town of Galena in Illinois (I hear it's quite nice!).
(All photos copyright Tom Moore Studios)
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