I was asked by my daughter to make her a tank top for Christmas. I had one of her own knitted tops to use as a size guide and she chose the yarn. The rest of it was instinct, experience and a bit of Christmas magic!
The yarn is Jamieson’s Shetland Heather in ‘Cardinal’ (shade 323) which is 100% pure Shetland wool in Aran weight. I used 6mm hook and the body of the top is made in linen stitch. I started with a tension swatch, and calculated how many stitches wide the top needed to be. Then I made a 9 stitch wide rib in (UK) half treble crochet back loop only. I picked up the stitches from the rib in a row of (UK) double crochet, then did an extra row of double crochet increasing to the number of stitches I had calculated. I then changed to linen stitch and shaped by following the top I had been given. The arm holes and neck are finished off in two rows of (UK) double crochet – the first using a 5.5mm hook and the second using a 5mm hook.
The finished item weighs 215g and other than a bit of blocking to make the side seams lie flat that was it!
Simply hooked 