I have done it again - I made something I wasn't supposed to like, and I'm loving it!
This is the Midnight Tank by Carrie Bostick Hoge. The pattern is included in The Simple Pleasures Linen eBook, which was published in July 2016. The recommended yarn for this tank is Quince & Co. Kestrel, which is a 100% organic linen, which sounds amazing. I didn't have the patience though to wait until I got my hands on some, and since Sirdar Cotton Rich Aran was readily available at the time, I went with it instead. You know how it is sometimes (most of the time), you need to cast on NOW. Because instant love. The yarn is 60% cotton and 40% acrylic, and the recommended needle size is 5 mm. If I remember correctly, I used a smaller size needle and got gauge easily. It's been a while since I knitted it though, so I might remember it wrong. 40% acrylic sounds like a lot, but I don't think the yarn has an acrylic feel to it at all.
So this knitting project had all the warning signs, but I went ahead with it anyway. Starting with the yarn: it has a high content of both cotton and acrylic, it's bulky, I bought it on a whim, and I usually hate this color. These are all reasons for me to stay away from a particular yarn.
And the pattern? I think I bought it the second I saw it, which I usually never do. I can't buy all the patterns I like, because then I would be drowning in them. This time I even bought the whole eBook instead of just one pattern, because I LOVE all the designs in it!
This pattern was an unlikely match though, for a number of reasons. I have stayed away from knitted tops, with no sleeves or short sleeves, and especially ones made from something other than wool. These are tops that are "supposed" to be worn in the warmer months, which I haven't been able to wrap my head around. Why would you want to wear anything knitted, woolen or otherwise, when you are sweating like crazy at the mere thought of it? But it turns out I'm wrong. I haven't considered knitted sleeveless (cotton) tops as layering pieces for the kind of in between weather that we get a lot of here in Finland, and I'm sure in other places too. So it turns out knitted tops from something other than wool are actually very versatile! To test my new theory, I'm at the moment knitting my third top. The second one is already in rotation, it just needs better pictures, before it gets to the blog.
To prove me triple-wrong, this top also has several design elements that I usually shy away from: bare shoulders, boat neck, any design element that emphasizes the shoulders, loose silhouette and bulky yarn. But I'm SO happy I was wrong!
So let's see if I get around to knitting any other designs from The Simpler Pleasures Linen eBook. I'm also dying to try knitting with linen! Have you been positively surprised recently?