Shortly Stitches

NaKniSweMoDo Knit #10: Back-to-School U-Neck Vest

As promised the other day, here is the selfish something I was working on alongside Dh’s jersey. A little something to break up the knitting on huge needles, and to break up the monotony of reeeeeally long rows of almost plain stocking stitch. Funnily enough, the stocking stitch also broke up the monotony of inches of 2×2 ribbing, and I enjoyed knitting both of them more. Complementary knitting – I think it has a lot to recommend it.

I wasn’t meaning to cheat or hurry along my tally by chosing a vest for this knit. I chose to knit this, Stefanie Japel’s  Back-to-School U-Neck Vest from a pattern in Fitted Knits. I chose it partly out of guilt I hadn’t knit anything from the book yet, partly because I had new yarn and didn’t have any room to stash it, and partly because I think I’ll get lots of use out of this if I knit it now, and not so much if I left it a few months. 

It must almost be a first for me to knit something in the recommended yarn, but when my sister was in the US, I got her to bring back the 4 skeins of Cascade 220 (in the Teal colourway) for me.  I purchased it from WEBS at less than $5 a skein, making this a bargain knit. With so many colours to choose from I was tempted to buy more but figured my sister might want to bring back some souvenirs of her own!

Anyway, I digress. Back to the vest. I made a few changes to it: lengthening the rib section by an inch, adding another 1.5 inches to the waffle stitch section after bust shaping and an extra centimetre to front and back straps. All of this resulted in the shaping all falling exactly where it was meant to.

The other major change I made was to the width of the neckline opening.  15 extra stitches were cast off here instead of being decreased at the arm opening. I prefer the silhouette this produces at the armhole as well as at the vest front. Because the arm holes are wider, I only did 3 rows of purl around the arm instead of the 3 purl, 3 knit, 3 purl the pattern suggests.

The back shaping I did keep, which I would perhaps do differently next time to create a simpler silhouette.

I did strike a few self-imposed issues along the way, thanks to some miscounting I had to knit the right left front strap three times. Tis  a thing of beauty now though!

I would really recommend this pattern, it’s an easy enough knit, but not boring. No acres of stocking stitch. Flattering shaping, lots of size options in the pattern, and in 10 ply the knitting just flies along.  It is versatile too – casual with jeans, but smart enough for work.

Now, for the doting aunties amongst my readers, here is the gratuitous baby shot… terrible of me, but darn cute of Miss 13 months.