Thursday, July 19, 2012

Something Wonderful

I've finished something astonishingly wonderful. The pride I feel in this sweater is akin, though less than, admittedly, to writing a book, or raising a child! It's a fair isle vest, knit in the round on size 3 needles in fingering weight yarn. It is gorgeous, no... absolutely breathtaking.



The hardest part was the waist shaping combined with the fair isle color work. A straight sided men's vest would have been much less difficult to execute. I DO have one of those in my queue, too. I also have another stranded vest on the needles, but it's a two color damask pattern and much more tedious to knit than this was.  As I said, I knit it in the round, using steeks to dilineate the decreases, and then I cut them with some scissors, picked up the neck and button bands, and knit 10 rows in two by two ribbing to finish it off... I just washed and blocked it yesterday and it's gonna sit on my model for quite a while, I think, till I NEED her for marking a hem or fall comes and I'm wearing it, whichever comes first.

Pattern: Corrie Fair Isle Vest, from Knit Picks

Cost: I can't exactly remember, because I bought this kit years ago, but I think it was in the $30 range... Palette yarn is only about $3.50 per ball, SUPER reasonable.

Time: Hours and hours of time, probably into the mid 40's for hours... but really it was a joy, every row was slightly different and the color changes were fascinating, the patterns wasn't nearly as difficult as it looks.

Note to self: Fair isle is fun, not hard, so do it more often!