Here’s the secret project I’ve been working at off and on since late spring…
…a vest for my mom. The photo makes it look fuschia-colored, but it’s really a true, bright red—her favorite color.
The pattern is “Knitted Patchwork Texture Vest” from Lion Brand Yarn. (This link will take you to a free copy of the pattern. For some reason it’s on Lion’s web site as both a free and a for-sale pattern—and I had to do a bit of hunting to find the no-cost version I’d printed out originally.) Lion’s pattern calls for kitchen cotton, but I wanted a yarn with a bit more bounce to it, so I used Cascade Superwash Wool 220.
The body was fun to knit: regular changes of patterns to keep things from getting boring, but simple enough that I could pick the project up and put it down again without worrying about becoming hopelessly lost. The finishing requires picking up stitchs around the armholes and up the front and behind the neck. I worked the armholes following the pattern, which was a bit of slow going, what with having to divide the number of stitches to be picked up by the number of inches along the arm hole, then placing lots of stitch markers to keep things even. When I got to the front/neck, I just put the pattern aside and picked up four stitches for every five rows (a ratio that’s worked for me on patterns I’ve designed myself). That went much faster. Hooray for the rewards of reckless knitting!
I’m visiting my parents just now, and gave the vest to my mom when I arrived. The weather’s much too warm for her to wear it at present, but I’m pleased to report it’s a perfect fit.
Yesterday, I drove my mom to Oakland so that we could both go to a yarn tasting at Article Pract. This month’s yarns were from Blue Sky Alpacas—yum, yum and double yum! These yarns could make a soft-o-meter blow a gasket. We were both sensible about our purchases, but each had to get something. I chose a skein of Suri Merino in Garden and two skeins of Organic Cotton, one Bone and one Sage, which is a delicate, pale green, though the color doesn’t register well in the web photo. The amazing thing about the Organic Cotton is that it’s undyed. The green? The cotton has been bred to grow in that color! I’m planning to write a lacy wrist warmer pattern to show off the Suri Merino and a colorwork hat pattern for the Organic Cotton. My mom chose two skeins of Sport Weight for a project of her own.
I also wanted to show off the beautiful package I got in the Cotton Commandoes’ Dishrag Tag Back-Swap. We decided that in addition to the speed-knitted dishrag we’d each do to send on to the next team member, we would also send a second dishrag backwards, to the person who speed-knit for each of us. Kay sent me a delightful package, which was all the more fun because I’d forgotten it would be coming.
I love the dishrag pattern she chose—and the floral coasters are just what my furniture has been begging me for. The package also included two skeins of an absolutely amazing ribbon yarn that I foolishly forgot to take a picture of. It has fluted edges and is a beautiful range of pale, opalescent blues and greens. (I’ll remedy that failure to photograph as soon as I can. Trust me—you’ll want to see this yarn.) Now I need to get on the ball and send my back-swap package to Laurie. It’s all ready, but I need to get myself to the post office.