Green vest for the green-eyed best

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Well, I failed at documenting this one, but for good reasons -- this project worked out every step of the way. 

I was planning a trip to Europe, which included visiting my best friend Ira. She enjoys wearing many things, but in particular collared shirts with vests, so I decided to knit her a vest. I got this beautiful Sublime yarn that was a cashmere/merino/silk blend that was honestly just sublime -- so soft and squishy and so very lovely to work with. I couldn't decide between beige and olive green and my daughter picked the latter, so olive green it was. Inspired by the earthy tone, I decided to incorporate the Column of Leaves pattern in the center of front and back of the vest. Determined to knit in the round, I adjusted it, changed up the border to include two mock cables on each side and 13 more stitches to make for a total of 73*2 stitches in the round. Here is the worst-ever chart of the front/back pattern, understandably beat up by the process of being constantly used while I was knitting:


Note to self to remember: RS leaf decrease is purl 2 together, WS leaf decrease is purl 2 together through the back loop (which evens out in blocking). 

The actual length was guess-work -- since it was easy to try on as I was knitting, I simply made a decision to eventually separate two parts to introduce sleeves. Next up, neck shaping... I wish I could decipher my notes. My best guess is that it took 20 rows of decreases in the front: I binded off 18 on each side, then decreased by 1 stitch for 5 rows and knit even for 3 to smooth out the transition. I continued with the pattern in the back for (I think) 12 rows, then again decreased by 1 stitch for 5 rows and knit even for 3. I think. Shoulders came out to the same number of stitches, which I grafted using Kitchener stitch. Then I picked up stitches on the neck and each shoulder, did a few rows of ribbing and ta-da!


How gorgeous is that?? What a joy this project was. The only thing that went remotely sideways was picking up stitches on the neck. Lesson learned: when you pick up stitches, pick through the full stitch, not the bind off stitch to avoid creating a ridge. 

One thing that came very handy in the process was a chain row counter to make it easy to keep track of which pattern row I was on. And yes indeed I made my own because I already had all the supplies for it. 


The recipient was very happy indeed.

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