The Meris Tee

MERIS Tee Overview

• Style and Feel: The MERIS is described as a modern, wonderfully light summer tee that features a beautiful drape. Because it is crafted from a gorgeous linen and silk blend, it feels soft against the skin and is highly enjoyable to wear during warm weather.

• Design Details: It is designed as a compound raglan that includes short-row shaping at the neckline to provide a great fit across all sizes. The design also features delicate eyelet detailing along the raglan lines, which brings a touch of whimsy and romance to the otherwise simple, everyday garment.

• Construction: The garment is worked seamlessly from the top down. The process begins by casting on stitches for the neckband and shaping the neckline using short rows. Following this, you work a raglan yoke and then split the knitting for the body and sleeves, adding a few extra cast-on stitches at the underarm to ensure an ideal fit. Lastly, both the body and sleeves are completed by working in the round.

• Skill Level: It is considered a true wardrobe staple and serves as a great pattern for adventurous beginner knitters.

• Fit and Sizing

  • Intended Fit: The tee is specifically designed to be worn with 5 cm / 2″ of positive ease around the bust, meaning the finished garment should be that much larger than your actual bust circumference.

  • Size Range: The pattern is highly inclusive, offering 18 different sizes. The finished bust circumference ranges from 77 cm (30.25″) up to 163 cm (64″).

  Specific Design and Construction Features

  • Neckline Comfort: The pattern utilizes German Short Rows to add additional rows to the back neckline, which ultimately creates a lower, rounded, and more comfortable front neckline.

  • Stacked Raglan Increases: Unlike traditional raglan designs where increases are centered around fixed stitches, the MERIS tee uses “stacked” increases. This means the next increase is always worked into one of the stitches of the previous increase round. This technique not only creates the decorative eyelets but also allows the stitches to be perfectly distributed between the body and sleeves for a customized fit across all sizes.

  • Customizable Body: Knitters have the choice to construct the body either with or without waist shaping, depending on their preferred silhouette.

  Materials and Specifications

  • Yarn: The pattern recommends a specific yarn composition to achieve its drape: Johanne by Save The Yarn, which is a blend of 60% Linen and 40% Silk.

  • Gauge: The targeted gauge for the tee is 28 stitches and 42 rounds = 10 cm / 4″ in Stockinette Stitch after blocking.

  • Needles: It requires 3 mm needles to obtain the main gauge, and smaller 2.5 mm needles for the ribbed neckband, body hem, and sleeve cuffs.