Tank talk

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All right, now that I’m not being outshone by my own offspring, let’s talk tank tops. Nathania, the current Queen of the Tank Top wants details about my tank. Ask, and ye shall receive. (Also, I have absolutely nothing else to talk about. Wait, that’s not completely true. I washed the kitchen floor. Trust me, that’s noteworthy)
Some time ago (like in the last couple of years) I saw a tank pattern that I really liked, because I am me, and the universe is like it is, this tank pattern is now gone. Completely gone. I have looked online everywhere I ever think I’ve been, searched google, stayed up half the night looking in my books and searching magazines. It is not here. I have been through all of these and swatched half of them. If I added up all the swatches I bet I would have already knit four tanks.
mags
I’ve actually started to believe that in my search for the perfect tank top I may have hallucinated it…all because I don’t want to believe that the perfect tank can’t be out there.
I’m a little tank picky. The perfect tank has the following characteristics.
– It has no fancy flouncy dumbass girly stuff. (What falls into this category varies with my mood)
-I don’t know where my bra is right now. This is common. A tank must be opaque enough to cope with this. (This rules lace over the bust right out)
-If I find my bra, I don’t want anyone to see it. Not even the straps. I know that there are those who feel that it is ok, or even desirable to display ones bra straps, but I am unmoved. (I suspect that if I had a collection of sexy co-ordinating bras I might feel differently, but I spent my bra money on wool. Screw it)
-My breasts, unfettered or not, are simply not comfortable with public office. Therefore, no plunging necklines.
In the end I gave up and made one up. Or …I’m making it up as I go.
tankstart
The tank and pattern (if you could call it that, ignore the placket thingie on the neck, I abandoned it) are resting on the new Ram Wools catalogue. It does not have the perfect tank in it either, just so you know.
This tank is a tunic sort of thing, with a split at the sides, a shaped waist (I don’t have one, but I like knitting them into my clothes, it makes me feel better) and a square neck, edged by the same seed stitch that I started with. I think it’s going to make the cut.
In other news, today I will continue my insane search for a plain white t-shirt for Sam to wear to a choir thing tonight. I am surprised that out of the 5 people living in this home not one of us has a stinking plain white t-shirt, (Joe says we have dark souls) and further shocked that I apparently can’t get one within a 5km radius of my home. I’m going to have to actually go downtown to get a plain white t-shirt. I’ve had some glimmers of hope , where I spot one on a rack and get all excited only to discover that I’m looking at the back and the front has “My face is up here” written on it.
The vicious irony of the whole epic search for this *&^%$@ t-shirt is that I have it on reasonably good authority that the choir director picked it because everybody has one.
Yeah.

20 thoughts on “Tank talk”

  1. I think I want to steal your tank top. Or at least the pattern!
    I hear you on the curse of the white shirt. I remember being in a choir once where the attire was black bottoms and a white shirt. I don’t do white. White is bad for people who spill, sit on dirt, and wipe their hands on themselves. I also don’t have many t-shirts.
    The one white t-shirt I own is not fit for wearing in a performance.
    Too bad she can’t wear a white knit tank top!

  2. I have that same problem with patterns. I saw a sweater once that I wanted to make for myself, but when the time came that I had the skills and the money, the magazine the pattern was in had mysteriously dissapeared. And also, in reading your lovely description of the the perfect tank, it seams to me that you are describing the ChicKami over at ChicKnits. But I like your pattern too :o)

  3. I am the same way about undergarments. I was disappointed in how so many of the designs in the recent Interweave Knits were lace. Good luck with the white shirt hunt.

  4. Hurray for the Harlot Tank! I’m on the second tank of the season, the VK cover tank, and I’m learning all kinds of things about my requirements for tanks as well. I think I may blog about this over at my place too. Thanks for the inspiration, Stephanie!
    White t-shirts blow. They’re a disaster waiting to happen. Best of luck in your search!

  5. Bras – feh.
    I am 51 years old. I don’t want to show my bra-straps – it is one of those things I consider “slovenly”. Maybe all those years of being taught by Sister Dorothy Marie. I also really don’t want my (admitedlly gorgeous) nipples to show through the lace – I don’t think nipples are supposed to show near the waistline – but I might be mistaken there.
    I just bought two bras. Nothing fit, I hadn’t worn a bra in a few years – and all of a sudden I started spraining my boobs. I hate spraining my boobs.
    Looks like a gorgeous tank….I have a vest that is 3 hours from being done in pretty much the same pattern.

  6. Steph –
    Mayhap you were thinking of the Shapely Tank by White Lies Designs?
    http://www.whiteliesdesigns.com/patterns/lpullovers/fbc.html
    It’s a free pattern, with short row shaping at hem, waist, and bust. The one I made is NOWHERE near as tight as that on the dummy in the picture. Quite a flattering tank, actually. Doesn’t flash any of the bits that you don’t want flashed. ;>
    Um, Nathania, I don’t know about this “Queen of Tanks” business. I might have to put my name into the competition. I love to knit tanks!
    The tank I’m working on right now is from brown/rust Cotton Twist, using the Basic Tank from Knitting Pure and Simple (not as shapely as the Shapely Tank, but knit in a single, seamless piece, which scores big for me).

  7. My favorite tank in the world fits your description. I have made several of them in different yarns. I got the pattern from Cabinfever and will try to find the link for you. It has an allover rib pattern, so is very opaque and fits easily.

  11. I have knit one, and it was amazingly fabulous on my shapely and slender little sister. The pattern called for wool, but I used a gorgeous kelley green, tweed Turino Silk, by Plymouth Yarns. Turino Silk knits into the most beautiful fabric. There’s nothing else like it.
    Basically it is a sleeveless, 2×2 ribbed, mock turtle neck, with a staghorn type cable panel up the front, all the way through the mock turtle neck. Gorgeous, gorgeous. It is both dressy and casual, depending on what she wears with it, and how she does her hair. If anyone is interested, I could go dig up the magazine and let you all know where it is. I can’t remember at the moment. I loved how the ribbing made it cling where it needed to. It’s knit strait, but you wouldn’t know it. My friend is making an exact copy for her niece. I really did score on that one. It’s easy as pie, too. I got really sick a year ago, and this was the first, in a line of easy projects I used to both get the rest I needed, and not hang myself with boredom.

  12. Ooooh, I want that one! Mine (in a similar color) isn’t quiet what I (the magazine for that matter) pictured. AND the pattern is wrong. Finding a tank for someone less that the beauty of Nathania and much older (than even most of you) is hard to do. Steph! Help!
    BTW, you were the reason I stayed on Knit List for so long. Your infrequent posts were worth digging through the debris to find. Finally gave up and glad you are easier to find and blogging daily!

  13. And don’t forget sideways. I have all your concerns plus a taste for square necklines and no particular fondness for cottons (knitting ’em, that is) particularly parakeet-colored ones. My great delight, then, was in using my jeweltoned cottons and ribbons to knit a tank sideways, starting under the arms and casting on/off, de/increasing as suited me. This has the additional advantage of making the stripes go in a favorable direction — and a row of purled ribbon sidewars looks like the world’s most intriguing stitch.
    This is, of course, for =after= the perfect tank — maybe using up stashlets?

  14. White t-shirts. Been there done that, and we had one store within 250 km. The owner liked purple dresses in size 42, and logger’s pants.
    The kids imformed me of the t-shirt thing waaaaay too late to have one shipped up on the bus.
    Take a white t-shirt that has a pic. on it. Turn it inside out. Cross your fingers that the lighting is low, and that you weren’t dumb enough to pick the one that says “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle”. Did that 3 times, and no one ever clued in.
    Good luck!
    Love the tank
    Barb

  16. Steph,
    For the t-shirt, if you haven’t found one yet, try Chocky’s. 352 Queen St. W. (at Spadina).

  17. Hmm… I also have trouble finding tank patterns I like. Part of the problem, I think, is that I don’t really LIKE knitted tank tops. I mean, I would like to knit them, but in my pre-knitting days, I would never have bought one off the rack.
    I’ve found knitting has changed my aesthetic a bit (which is weird, because I have to keep asking myself “do you like this sweater because you’re a crazy knitting lady or because it would look good on you?”), but still the only knitted tank I’d be willing to wear would be more like a shell and knitted in a very small gauge.
    Hmm maybe I should learn to sew….

  19. I can’t imagine that no store within 5KM sells boy’s underwear? Fruit of the Loom and Hanes sell them as undershirts in packages of three. Don’t know what to do with ALL of those? Let the girls have a tiedye party on saturday.
    Love your tank. Love ALL the pretty knitted tanks I see in blog world. They look like a pile of fun to knit – especially for using up stash. BUT – I can’t wear them. Fat flabby upper arms. Perhaps if I went to the pool and let them tan a bit? nah. ‘druther stay home and knit up next winter’s offerings to the northern branches of the family. I’m hopeless =)

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