At about 40% of the way complete, I blocked this (I wasn’t feeling it) and decided that I wasn’t going to continue. I’d already completed the neck and armscye finishing, which there was no way I was going to undo given the hours it took to work those finishes, so I sacrificed 43g of the yarn, leaving me with barely enough to do anything, though I’m sure I’ll find some use for this discontinued yarn.

Why did I rip it back?: Well, the deal breaker was the width of the shoulder segment, which was a good inch wider than I’d prefer. Specifically, this shoulder construction doesn’t lend itself well to yarn with no recovery. If I were ever going to remake this (and it’s unlikely), I would use 100 percent wool. And I’d narrow the shoulder tops to the 20st cast on. But then I’d have to figure out how to increase to the size 2 from the size 1 and I just don’t like this garment enough to spend any more time on it. Also, that shoulder segment takes on a slightly 3-dimensional shape which would likely block out in wool. In pure linen, it just looked floppy and a bit dome-like.

About the Pattern:
* This pattern is quite unusual in terms of right and left shoulder construction (which is where you cast on and do the initial knitting given that this garment is top down).

• While accurately presented, the pattern does not explain why one does what one does. In terms of increases for the Right and Left Shoulder segments: They contain different increases (M1R, M1L, M1RP, M1LP) so that you can increase in the 4x4 pattern. Sometimes you’ll need to increase to create a purl on the right side and sometimes you’ll need to inc to create a knit on the right side. Same with the WS. And those incs will need to slant in the correct direction, depending on whether you’re working the RS or WS. It’s quite ingenious but potentially confusing.

• When increasing for the front and back armscyes, the lifted increases in the body front and back increase sections are awkward to achieve. I didn’t worry excessively about whether I picked up into the st 2 rows below (when instructed). Just picked up an appropriate right leg below and twisted (or not) based on instructions for each lifted increase. It worked out fine.

• I found this pattern unpleasant to alter because it doesn’t explain what’s going on and it’s not a standard construction for a tank top. As I decided to make both horizontal and vertical alterations, it was not easy given that the “why” of the pattern wasn’t in any way explained.

• This is how the pattern works conceptually: The first section you knit (Right and Left Shoulder) creates the top of the shoulder “strap” on each side and each piece of this 4x4 ribbing will sit horizontally over the top of the shoulder. Thereafter, you pick up stitches (from either end of each horizontal knit segment at the end of the straps) to create vertical 4x4 stripes. Once you get to a certain depth, you then cast on stitches to create the front and back body pieces between the straps. You do increases to shape the armscye and then you join at the underarm, without increasing any stitches at the under arm (in my size). The neck and armscye finishing is a riff on grafting - you pick up stitches to create a stockinette strip that is folded in half and then the live stitches are grafted to purl bumps as a means by which a short binding is created.

Specific to My Alterations:

• Something to keep in mind: This is an 8-st repeat. So if you want to add additional stitches at the underarm to increase bust circumference you will need to do so in batches of 8 stitches at each underarm aka - 16st or ~2.6” of additional circumference presuming you get gauge. This will ensure that you maintain the 4x4 ribbing once you join at the under arm.

• Another thing to keep in mind is that, as the pattern is written in the second size (haven’t looked at other sizes), you get 3.8” of depth from the horizontal shoulder strap plus vertical straps before casting on the front and back body stitches. That means you’ve already knitted to a reasonable amount of depth before you start creating the armscye increases when working the Front and Back Pieces. So if you alter the pattern because your armscye is proportionately short, you need to recognize that you don’t have a lot of length left to work with by the time you are instructed start those armsyce increases. You could shorten the span above the join of the straps at the front and back but you’d need to do it such that it wouldn’t impact the neckline shaping. Since I was past this point when I realized this, I opted to shorten as of the cast on of Front and Back Pieces (the stitches that connect the front straps and the back straps aka the cast ons that create the front and back body) while changing the rate of increase in those sections (or at least in the Front Piece).

• I decided to work the armscye and neckline finishing before working the body to determine that the depth of these areas would be correct / to have a better sense of whether I might want to dec, after full bust.

• Armscye Finishing: This finishing will shorten the armscye after the fact, so don’t go too short even though the armscye depth seems rather long as drafted, pre-finishing. I wanted no more than 8” depth of armscyes before working the finishing. And then I had to pick up fewer stitches than called for (80 st) to shorten things to the stipulated depth. My row gauge is off so I can’t really tell if the pattern is drafted long or if, at gauge, picking up 2/3 stitches will get you to the armscye depth as shown in the schematic.

• And on the topic of the grafting live stitches to “the first worked round on wrong side of edging”. Not only have I not heard of this technique before (in 12 yrs of compulsive knitting) but it’s really tough to find an example of how to do it. The pattern does NOT explain the process at all. So thankfully, a Raveler here (Cartope) pointed to this visual-only Insta tutorial: https://www.instagram.com/p/CCK_IwggDFj/?igshid=qi3yb9b26xrv. Given that an unusual technique is not defined, explained or well-described, this pattern gets a mediocre clarity rating from me.

• Neckline Finishing: I made the neckline longer by 8R (so I had to pick up about 12 stitches more than I otherwise would have otherwise). I casted on 170 st. When working this bind off, which took approx 4 hours (????!) given that every bound off stitch takes 4 steps and those steps are worked between a needle and bound off purls, I opted to put the majority of stitches on waste yarn (this yarn was too tiny for the barber cords to fit) and then moved about 10st at a time to the needle. This is one of the rare occasions wherein I wish I had DPNs… This way of managing the stitches gave me more space and visibility to sew the bind off. Not sure if this would have worked on the armscyes given the degree of angularity, but I’d try it in future. I still eased in the stitches around the edges (sometimes working a smile purl instead of a frown, as explained below), but I needed to do so less frequently given the angles of the neckline. I still don’t know if I like this sewn binding but it’s good to give it a try so that I will know for future.

• Final word on the neck/armscye finishing: It takes FOREVER. You think tubular bind off is a PITA? This is next level and god help you if you need to rip it out. It’s also tricky to sew in such a way that the stockinette doesn’t skew diagonally (I sense this is because the fabric is biasing around the opening - it should be less problematic when working the neck). Sometimes I picked up the “smile” purl bumps rather than the “frown” purl bumps, to keep the edging perpendicular to the hole (kind of like modifying which stitch one works into when mattress stitching to keep things level). I figured out how to seam down the fold over a) cuz it was a learning opp b) cuz there were no decent instructions and I wanted to see if I could copy a 20 second reel with success and c) I wanted to see if I’d like the end result. Not sure if I like it. It would work better in a yarn with recovery, IMO, not the linen I’m using. It doesn’t cover over the picked up stitches line on the WS (which are not the neatest given the instructed pick up stitches method) cuz you fold it onto itself, not the garment. And it’s def bulkier than a 4x4 rib edge would be. But it creates a really firm edge. I might do this again on another pattern with another fibre, but I think you could do ribbing with just as nice a finish and it would be slimmer. One other idea: I don’t tend to love fold over hems or knitted binding given the bulk it tends to produce - but, you could work this binding by picking up the purl bump and then knitting it together with the live stitch. This would require you to bind off the stitches as you work (or at the end) so I don’t think it would create as flat a finish (and the finish is already on the bulky side IMO), but it would be way less irritating and would look the same from the right side.

• I have to assume that the horizontal shoulder piece is supposed to sit evenly at the shoulder top - i.e. the centre purl strip of that piece is right at the shoulder top. This means that the back neck is drafted quite low and the front neck is drafted quite high. To keep the strap on the top of the shoulder at the mid-point while also lowering the front neckline, I worked the first 8-rows of the Front Piece increase section 1 (that happens after instructions to join the front straps) BEFORE joining for the front panel at the front neck. Thereafter I casted on the 28 stitches required to get me to the stitch count instructed when I worked the join row after the first 8R. Note that in order to get to the depth I wnated, I opted to work increase rounds on the front body every RS row.

• Body: While my 4x4 rib is very even when knitting flat (the upper portion of this garment), when I switched at the underarm, to knitting in the round, for the first time ever there was rowing out in the first knit stitch of every knit column. Weird. I have to assume that this has a lot to do with the fibre I used. Seriously, knitting with pure linen, even one as high-quality as Shibui, is not the easiest or most enjoyable experience as there is NO recovery. So, to fix this, I’ve opted to wrap the yarn in the opposite direction on each first knit stitch. This mounts the stitch with left leg in front so I knit through the back stitch AND twist the yarn oppositely. Not difficult at all and it seems to do the trick. Not sure if this is Eastern knitting but it’s fixing the issue. I only wish I’d thought of this when I first began the knitting in the round. I suspect the inch or so of rowed-out first knits should block out as I’ve got lots of negative ease going on…

For Reference - How I Modified the Garment so that it’s somewhere between Size 2 and Size 3:

• Back Piece: I started the increases after 1” of depth (vs instructed 2.5”). For me, that was 10R. In order to increase by 8 st (to have 100st, what’s aligned with the size 3, for what it’s worth), I worked one extra repeat of Section 1. Thereafter, I worked 2 more rows plain - 48R from back body cast on. This gave me almost 1” more circumference than the pattern instructs in size 2 and an 8” unfinished armscye depth (which will be shortened by finishing technique).

• Front Piece:It would appear that the front piece is drafted to be ~75% of the depth of the back body, in terms of the number of rows worked in Size 2. Because I wanted additional circumference at front body (8 additional stitches or ~1” / 108st total vs 100 for size 2), but I also want to maintain an 8” depth for the armscye, I opted to change the rate of increase so that I a) worked increases every RS row and b) added one additional increase segment aka Increase Section 4 (which is instructed for size 3).

• Before the joining of front and back body at underarm, I had 208st - 108st on Front and 100st on Back. That’s about 31.5” - not enough circ for me given that my bust is ~39.5” and recommended negative ease is 6” at upper end. So I added 8 st at each underarm (casting on using backwards loop method) for an additional 16st or 224st total (and keep in mind that my gauge is smaller than instructed). That resulted in the requisite 34” of circumference. Note also that pure linen has no recovery and stretches a lot, so I do want a good 6” of negative ease to ensure that the garment retains it’s shape when worn.

• Because of the way I did extra increases on the front and back body pieces, the 8st on each underarm aligns with the ribbing already created. Front piece edges end with 4 purls and Back piece edges end with 4 knits.

• One other alteration - Increasing the depth of the front neckline: Because this pattern is drafted with a proportionately low(ish) back neck and a proportionately high front neck, I made the following alteration to increase the neck depth by 8R or ~1”: I worked the first 8R of the Front Piece BEFORE joining the front straps by casting on the 28st front neck. Thereafter, I casted on the stitches and continued in accordance with my other alterations, to ensure I’d get to the desired depth and circumference.

Gauge Swatches:

Pre-blocked Gauge Swatch US2.5 / 3mm:
4x4 rib: 37.5st and 39R in 4”

Post-blocked Gauge Swatch US 2.5 / 3mm:
4x4 rib: 26.5st and 39R in 4” The linen has no recovery and it stretches tremendously. So stick with this fabric - even if rather off gauge - in the size 32”. That’s 7” of negative ease and rec upper limit is 6”. But I can tell that the fabric is going to stretch a lot, without recovery except when washed, and I don’t want a fabric that is too open. I’ll make alterations, if necessary, on the fly.

Pre-blocked Gauge Swatch US4:
Stockinette - 27st and 36R in 4’
3x3 rib - 33st and 34-34.5R in 4”

Post-blocked Gauge Swatch US 4:
Stockinette - 26st and 40R in 4”
3x3 rib - 27st and 40R in 4”

Idun Top Recommended Gauge: 24st and 34R in 4x4 rib