Jesse Maed's Totally Tank Top (Racerback) in Turquoise

I love Jesse Maed's designs, they're really fun to knit. I was hooked with the first one that I knit thanks to Sarah's suggestion of "My Secret Little Crop" (which I have knit 3 of) and then I got into Jesse's other designs. This Totally Tank Top took me forever (see it's tag), for a crop top anyway...longer than I'm used to...ok, I was learning. I ripped this out and restarted at least once (twice?) and then it took me 3 tries to get the neck edging right (for me). 

I knit the Medium size. I extended the arm opening (at least 2 inches, it was 70 rows total) which also created more of a scoop neck that I like better. The first time I had enough of this knit up to try it on I was following the suggested strap length and the arms holes were tight and the neck much too high for me.  

I love Jesse's designs because they're super easy to make adjustments on. I chose the "ribbed" arm and neck finish which I seemed to be picking up the stitches weird and this yarn blend wasn't "ribbing" it just wanted to lay flat on this needle size so it decided to be a "design choice" a pattern at the end of the day. I ended up knitting a lot less stitches (58 ish on the sides) than called for in the pattern (75 on the sides) for the neck.

I put my first tag in a hand knit piece :)

I've worn this a few times and I'm finding it really versatile and summery, which is what I was going for. 

My Secret Little Crop #3; Super-cropped Cotton/Hemp blend

Backtracking to my summer projects...I can't get enough of this crop top pattern by Jessie Maed Designs. "My Little Secret Crop" knits up quickly and I found some stash yarn I wanted to try for a lighter weight garment...I also wanted it shorter to go with overalls. I started and finished this crop top in June and every time I wore it out it got compliments. 

Out at lunch for a date-day:

Waitress:  I love your top
Me: Thanks, I made it.
Waitress: You did? Do you sell them?
Me: No
Waitress: Would you sell them?
Me: No, I just knit for myself, it takes too long to knit to make it worth selling.
Waitress: ...[clearly disappointed tension]
Waitress: Oh, it even has a crisscross back! [walking away]
Me: It's a pattern on Ravelry if you learn to knit...
Bryan: I thought she was going to rip it off you. 

I thought it looked cute with my work pants, 

it was easy to throw on for a totally different look to grab dinner when I got off. 

I have a bunch of small balls of a cotton/hemp blend that I love. I know I used this yarn in red for the red leaf tunic I made years ago, I'm not sure what I have all this green for. Sometimes when I love a yarn I just buy a bunch, which is probably why this has been sitting in my stash. I have been good about not doing that kind of purchasing anymore, I have more yarn than I'll ever be able to use (yet never what I'm looking for so that's when I buy more). Anyway, the green hemp/cotton blend with a pretty Berroco variegated blend turned out really lovely. I wore this top a lot this summer.

Second Knit Crop Top: Black and White Stripes

I am so behind on blog updates, I swear, I'm still creating! As we plan for our dressy punk wedding I keep thinking of things I can make to wear to concerts coming up like Rammstein, ska shows and Riot Fest (our honeymoon) so I decided to try a black and white stripe crop-top.  I got it done just in time for the Kill Lincoln, JER, Dissidente concert in Grand Rapids at the beginning of this month.  

Bryan and I both happened to have Friday off before his birthday and it just happened that there was a ska concert in Grand Rapids.  It's almost like it was my birthday, I promise that I gave him other options of things we could do and left it wide open, he picked the ska show. <3  We switched up our usual dinner spot and I introduced him to The Electric Cheetah which I had apparently forgot existed as it's not as close to the music venue as our usual spot, Luna. Bryan rolled a Yahtzee on the second roll and got his Yahtzee dinner for free, plus a birthday cookie. Ultimately things kept turning up Bryan around his birthday so it was a good week for us.

Back to the newly knit crop top; it held up great through skanking, jumping, dancing, sweating. I knit up My Secret Little Crop last year in a more vintage look and wore it all last summer. Being a crop top it still has air flow so it doesn't feel too heavy even though it kind-of is for warm-weather application. I usually don't think of wearing knits like this in the summer, but I'm learning it's all about the shape and styling at the end of the day. I've thrown a lot of "do's" and "don't" of fashion out the window over the years but nowadays I think I'm just dumping all the rules out and setting them on fire.

I really love this crop top pattern by Jessie Maed Designs.  She has a ton of cute patterns and you should check them out if you're a knitter. I kind-of want to start another summer top but I have way too many projects going right now. Also, thank you to Sally for passing along her late mother's stash to me, I'm finding ways to use it while I practice and improve my knitting.  This stripe top is 100% her mother's stash yarn.

Currently most of my free time has been outside working on our gardens (weeding lots!) and picking away at the very time-consuming paint-job that I'm doing on the garage. I'm just realizing that the garden along the door-privacy-fence is filling in in the way I always dreamed of being able to have a decorative garden. So I guess I'm pretty ok at gardening. The garage paint job is satisfying my need to play with colors in the same way that the door fence and my beadwork does. At the end of the day it's really neat to see how the way I design translates into each other. 

Knitting Project: My Little Secret Crop

I was talking to my friend Sarah and she mentioned this cute crop top pattern on Ravelry.  I looked up My Little Secret Crop by Jessie Maed Designs and loved how versatile the pattern is and how she encourages you to use stash yarn. As much as my initial thought was that I have no business wearing a crop top at my age, I decided to ignore that and try my hand at knitting this top. 

I have recently purchased a pair of Levis that are flared "ribcage" jeans which I would just describe as super high-waisted stove-pipes so they allow me to wear a crop top without any unsightly bulges sticking out. I've always loved the vintage 70's look and I think this top, the yarn choices and the pants all make it come together for me. 

I was so proud of myself, I sampled ahead of time and ended up using 3 strands of yarn at the same time to get the correct gauge. The rust colored yarn is a bit scratchy so it took me about a month of knitting in the evenings to finish this without rubbing my fingers raw. I haven't done a burn test on this yarn to see what the content is. I was a little worried that it would be too uncomfortable to wear at the end of the day, but as I used to say "fashion over function."  After washing it I've found that it is comfortable to wear and I love it! 

About this stash yarn. I met Sally through Reach's Not So Silent Night holiday fundraiser a few years back. She has some of my beadwork and I've done some repairs on antique bead pieces for her. She told me she had nice yarn from her mom's estate that she wanted me to have. Last year we finally had a good time to meet when she was in town for me to come pick it up.  I'm still sorting through it, much of it is a little thicker than what I use for my regular (double weave) weaving but I use anything and everything when I tapestry weave.  When I decided to make this crop top, I found this wonderful rust speckled yarn that may actually be from the 70's to use as the base of this top. It has the turquoise and pinks in it so using them as accent stripes made sense. The images of the various top combinations on Ravelry were inspiring and I definitely liked the striped ones over the tops with just one color.

2020 and 2021 is really the first time in my life I've spent a lot of time knitting other people's patterns. From the beginning of my knitting career in elementary school I always preferred to figure out how to make something on my own. Most things were very blocky because I didn't know how to do much. This past year I have been knitting more of other people's patterns and I'm finding it more relaxing (it's all figured out for me), and I'm learning a lot more. The straps to this top are double knit, which has recently come up as a thing I thought I should learn. It's double knit on a small scale but with the pattern showing me how to do so it was a quicker learning process and now I'm letting it roll around in my head as to how else I could use this (and how can I knit it like I do double weave pick up). I also learned how to do a three needle bind off. Mind. Blown. Which I actually needed to do for my next knitted top's bottom hem. It looks lovely and no stitching anything together afterwards. 

I've already worn this top twice and I have a sneaking suspicion I'll be making more of these.