A Tank Top to Get You Thinking about Summer

I knew I wanted to share this particular knitting pattern with you (mostly because I really want to knit one, too) and I grappled with the idea of whether it was time to pull together a roundup of tank top knitting patterns.

I think it might be a little early in the season for that, at least where I live, but I promise to have more tank top and summer top patterns for you soon.

In the meantime, I think Maxie’s Tank Top pattern from Ainur Berkimbayeva deserves its own post.

This sleek V-neck is worked in one piece from the top down. It uses fingering weight yarn (in particular, Knit Picks Lindy Chain, which is a linen and cotton blend and a chainette yarn that’s great for summer stitching) and has an allover ribbed pattern. This allows you to knit it with a lot of negative ease and still have it fit comfortably. It also includes bust darts for a better fit.

The pattern comes in nine sizes with an actual finished chest circumference of 23.75 to 50 inches, or 60.5 to 127 cm. The sample is shown with 7 inches/17.8 cm of negative ease, but the pattern includes tips on choosing the right size for you. It also says you can use the back neck portion of the pattern as your gauge swatch, which is fun.

Tank tops are great to wear by themselves when the weather is warm, but they are also great layering pieces, under a sheer top or even under a long-sleeved shirt or sweater when the weather gets colder.

I feel like I need a lot more tank tops and summer things that I made myself, so this one is definitely going on my list.

You can grab the pattern with a pay what you can cost model (please support designers the best that you can!) on Ravelry.

[Photo: Ainur Berkimbayeva]

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

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