A vest for a vest: finished

A vest for a vest
Originally uploaded by Asplund

I envy my fingers – unlike me they remember things so well! Once I got started with the pattern it was almost like typing, and a favourite movie helped making this a quick knit: Woody Allen's Match Point is so compelling (even the the third time) I knitted faster than usual.

Short notes about the construction:

1. Knitted in one piece until I reached the armholes, then divided into three sections.
2. Armholes shaped using short rows.
3. Back and front joined using a three-needle bind-off and knitting a neck gusset (which I learnt from Alice Starmore's Fishermen's Sweaters). Picture here.
4. Stitches picked up around the armholes for a garter-stitch edging.
5. I picked up stitches along front; then knitted gusset stitches, back stitches and gusset stitches; then picked up stitches along other front. All stitches knitted back and forth for garter stitch edging.

My mother seems pleased with how her new vest turned out!

A vest for a vest

A vest for a vest
Originally uploaded by Asplund

Feeling a bit cold this morning I borrowed a grey vest that I knitted for my mother some five years ago and which is too big for her. The length is fine and she likes wearing it, but it gives her "wings".

Guess what? It turns out to be exactly my size, so we've decided I'll knit her a new one. There is enough of some beautiful heathery blue wool from Morjärv that's been in my stash for quite a while, waiting patiently for the right project.

As the grey vest is pre-Ravelry I don't have any notes – or I don't know where they are and probably wouldn't recognize them if they turned up – and that wool is a lot thicker, my challenges for this project are:

1) reconstructing the two patterns, since I don't own the book where I found them (Vogue Dictionary of Knitting Stitches by Anne Matthews);
2) figuring out where and how often to increase to get them to blend (the ribbing and main pattern repeats consist of different number of stitches);
3) knit a different size with different, thinner wool and a different gauge – and place the pattern so it becomes symmetrical;
4) last but not least, get the size right this time!

In addition, I'm knitting this vest in one piece instead of three. Why? To try it! Haven't knitted an open vest that way before.

Wearing and studying the grey vest takes me back to the time when I was knitting it. It was summer and I was staying at a colleague's house while she and her husband were away. They have a wonderful little garden where I spent many hours knitting, reading and picking berries. Strawberries, gooseberries, red and black currants, blueberries... Heaven.