Knitting 1.3 km of yarn into tank tops

Good morning, DMV! It’s Tuesday, July 7.

My mom sometime over the past year or so gifted me an unfinished crochet project and a stash of yarn for the project. She had stopped knitting and crocheting because it hurt her hands. The crochet project she gave me was the beginning of a skirt … that, I decided, I couldn’t imagine wearing.

So a few months ago, I unraveled it.

A week ago, on July 1, I finished up the stash — more than a kilometer of yarn that I knitted into five tank tops. It was meditative.

The label on this brand of yarn said 100 grams is approximately 200 meters. The finished tank tops weigh 672 grams, which amounts to approximately 1,344 meters of yarn.

It’s cotton, so I made warm-weather pieces that were utilitarian. I wanted to make items that my daughter, nieces or I would wear — because this was yarn my mom had bought years (maybe decades?) ago, and I thought it would be good to keep the yarn in the family. I chose two patterns and went at it.

Here are the finished products. The pieces on the far left and far right are the Audrey Top by PetiteKnit; the three in the center are the Ooh La La Bralette by Brie Christine.

I prefer solid colors and was able to complete three solids using the yarn stash.

Then I had to get creative with the leftover colors.

I was hoping to make the one above left in only dark purple and blue, but I ran out of both colors. I added pink to finish.

For the last tank top, I used the remainder of the stash — purple, pink and coral. I was determined to use every last bit of yarn and added a little signature flair on the back of the tank top.

I thought I could make it look like liquid that ran out and pooled at the bottom of the tank top, but it didn’t work. At this point, however, I didn’t want to unravel again, so I let it be.

THE END!

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I plan to head tomorrow to the National Museum of Women in the Arts for its free community day and the grand opening of its new cafe.

Plus …

A reader sent me a photo of a “you are beautiful” sticker she came upon in a bathroom in a Fairfax County government building. I wrote the artist behind them. Then readers sent me more photos of “you are beautiful” spottings — including this latest from Kara Morrissey, 46, of the NoMa neighborhood of D.C.

“I found a ‘you are beautiful’ sticker in a pub in Dublin, Ireland! My family and I were traveling there for the first time,” Kara wrote in her submission.

“I loved learning about the YAB art movement in your newsletter earlier this year and was so excited to see the sticker!”

Share your photos of summer life in the DMV here.

🧶