Nyanen Tee

And nearly two years after I cast on it is finally finished! I started this lace tank top (why the pattern calls it a tee is a mystery to me) on a family trip to Door County, Wisconsin so it has nice associations in my mind with a cool and misty beach, cheese curds, and lemon meringue pie. I set it aside shortly after returning home and just finally picked it back up this spring.

The pattern is Nyanen Tee by Cecily Glowik Macdonald, and can be found here. The pattern is extremely simple and is knit in the round to the underarm without any shaping and then back and forth to the neckline. The back is lower than the front due to ribbed straps that extend over the shoulders to the back. Initially one of my favorite features of the pattern was the scalloped effect around the armhole, but this isn’t very obvious in my version. Perhaps I need to more aggressively block the armholes.

I used fingering weight yarn in 100% linen from Quince and Co. (available here) in “Birch,” which is a little bit silvery and a little bit blue. I love the color, but this project taught me that I don’t enjoy working with linen. I understand that it will “grow” and become softer with washing and wearing, but I found the yarn stiff and unpleasant to work with. I also prefer yarn that ends up precise and even after blocking, and while I’m happy with the lace portion the 1×1 ribbing is too uneven for my liking.

I had heard that linen gets larger with wear so I didn’t make this with as much ease as I normally would. As of now it’s tighter and shorter than I’d like, so here’s hoping that it does indeed stretch with time.

I’m not so sure about summer knitting projects in general. As my mother pointed out recently, a nice cool-looking lacy top like this really has to be worn over an undershirt and that negates the whole point of an airy pattern. I guess I’ll see…I do like the boat neckline and the color, and wearing linen is pleasant, so hopefully I’ll end up wearing this despite my ambivalence. At any rate, it always feels good to finish something that’s been kicking around for a while!

I’m currently eagerly waiting for a size 3 circular needle to arrive in my mailbox so that I can get going on my next project. It’s been a week without a knitting project and I’m getting antsy!