Tag Archives: Tin Roof Tee

Tin Roof in Linen

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A nice summery linen top just in time for summer; how often do I manage that? Usually I suffer from seasonal displacement with my knitting, but this one is timed rather well.

I liked this pattern, Tin Roof by yamagara (Bernice Lim), as soon as I saw it. What I liked most was that it was a pattern that was made to be fooled around with – not enough of one colour? No worries! Want it longer, shorter, wider, narrower? Customisation is easy!

And best of all, it allowed me to use up some yarn in deep stash. I purchased a bunch of skeins of Quince & Co Sparrow years ago when I saw them sitting in a pretty basket in Loop London. The colours appealed to me so much and the linen was really crisp and sharp. I then discovered that I really didn’t like knitting with Sparrow – for various reasons, but mostly because the knitted fabric torques a lot – and it sat in my stash for years. I thought that the mechanics of this pattern would minimise torque, so I dove in and cast on.

The main body of the top is knitted in two pieces – from side-to-side starting at the sleeves and working towards the middle. I cast on 81 stitches for the sleeve caps (as for the size 48), and then cast on 42 stitches each side for the back and front (thus 15 stitches more than called for in the pattern on each side). If you are neither very tiny nor want to show lots of skin, make sure you cast on more than the pattern calls for! I then knit 32 rows for each of the six stripes, thus ending up with a size 46, giving about 3.5″ of ease.

The pattern has some pretty features – I especially like the line of cables that goes across the shoulders. It also has a good drape and a cool, high neckline (nice when the sun is shining if you burn like me). These shapings are integrated in a very easy manner, so there is no finishing required at the neck or sleeves.

I tried knitting the bottom part of the sweater as in the pattern (reverse stockinette, followed by ribbing) but I really didn’t like the way it looked (I blogged about it here, with photos). So, I ripped it out, and re-knit it in stockinette with the right side facing out. I also decided that I didn’t like the ribbing at the hips – so I put in a turned hem. I knitted down to the length I wanted, purled a row (the turn row), knitted 7 more rows and then bound off. I then turned up the hem and sewed it in place. I think it gives it a nice, neat edge, and I am hoping that the weight of it will help keep the torqueing to a minimum.

I also repeated the six colours of the block stripes in this bottom section – two rows of each and off-set so as not to be symmetrical. I like this (although it significantly increased the number of ends I had to weave in last night).

It’s a quiet, grey Sunday here, but yesterday was glorious and has renewed my faith in June. I plan to spend the rest of the day wrestling some very problematic sleeves into shape (more on that next week). Take care!

This tin roof is hot

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Last week I started knitting Tin Roof (Ravelry link), an interesting tee, which is knitted from side-to-side. The pattern is by yamagara (otherwise known as Bernice Lim). Here is the project photo of Tin Roof:

© yamagara

I loved it when I saw it, and thought it would allow me to use up some linen yarn which had been in my stash for a number of years. I had a bunch of single skeins in a range of blues, greys, and greens, along with a couple skeins of black. I had already swatched with the yarn (Sparrow by Quince & Co) in 2017 when I tried it on another project (since aborted) and luckily I had recorded the gauge and needle size, so I was able to cast on directly and go. And go I have! This Tin Roof is hot!

Here is the left half of the top, both front and back. You start by casting on the sleeve cap, and then use a cable cast on to add stitches for both front and back, which are then knitted back and forth, with some artfully placed increases to give drape to the garment, until you split for the neck. The front (shown at the top in the photo above) gets some decreases to shape the neckline.

Then, this piece gets put aside and the right side is made in an identical manner and the two pieces are joined together at centre front and centre back. Finally, stitches are picked up along the bottom edge and the base of the top is purled, for some reverse stockinette, and then ribbed. I think the design is smashing and so easy to knit. It is a genius pattern for using up small bits of yarn and I think the linen is going to be great. I intend to make both sleeve caps and the base in black and to have each of the six striped panels in a different shade. Cool, huh?

In case you are having difficulty picturing it, here I have folded the front over the back so you can see the left side of the garment:

Note that if you are doing this yourself, you might really want to consider casting on additional stitches during the cable cast-on of front and back; this will make the stripes longer. The original is cropped too much for me, but this is a good solution (and documented by many on Ravelry); I cast on 12 more stitches each side than the pattern called for. The design is very simple but still has some cool features such as this shoulder detail:

This one is flying off the needles! It is a Bank Holiday weekend here and the weather looks awful, which means plenty of knitting time ahead of me! Keep well, everyone!