May 3rd, 2019 This vest seems to have a matted dead cat look to it now because of the Mousse Estro pilling… but whatever! It’s still a piece of heaven to wear and I don’t care that it looks like I am wearing a dead cat! (It’s not something one can repair with shaving either… you just have to live with it.)

This is gonna be delicious! Knitting with the 2 yarns held together. I dove in as soon as my package was delivered. (NO SWATCH!) It’s a loose fitting garment so swatching isn’t really necessary. (I hope!)

The collar, all washed and blocked, is 72 rows and measures 10” x 6” and the collar is suppose to be 5” so gauge is out of whack stitch-wise but pretty close row-wise. (OH SO freaking soft! The patterning is blurred but that’s ok by me.) I should, according to the pattern, make the collar a bit longer but I am gonna leave it like this and hope that keeping it smaller keeps the shoulders where they belong. I don’t like sloppy shoulders that slip off constantly.

April 20, 2018

I am totally LOVING knitting this up! It’s the pattern and the yarn choice!!! Every stitch is amazing and the pattern is interesting enough to keep me going.

I’m not really looking forward to the main body though… all that st.st but the pockets and the panel should break the monotony of it all nicely and the yarns will help pull me through.

Back measures 28” wide so a little less wide than the intended 29 1/2” but it might get a tad wider with washing. Not thinking that an inch and a half is going to make or break this design.

Shoot, I just noticed that I did the ribbed edging wrong and didn’t end up increasing the 8 stitches on there?! (4 on each side.) So long as I do the same on the fronts, it shouldn’t matter!

April 22, 2018

Mods:

• Slipped the first stitch of every row purlwise and knit the last.
• Picked up, at the neck edge, 3 stitches for every 4 rows. (My usual MO) Nearly the exact same number of stitches asked for so no need for a decrease row at the back of the neck.
• German short rows. I even did German short rows on the sleeve ribbing every row and this is where/how I missed the increases. Shadow wrap short rows are Greek to me so I plodded along. Looks and measures perfectly fine to me!

2” away from completing the right front sleeve section. (I can’t take an opened up picture because I have picked up both front sides and I still have the back attached! I have long cables!)

April 25, 2018

On the last few rows of the 2nd sleeve section :-)

April 26, 2018

Pockets:

• Working the xs size numbers for the pocket placement.

• I also want the pocket lining to go right over to the patterning edge so I will be casting on more stitches here. (I’d really rather not have a seam up the front if I can avoid it and bigger pockets are a bonus!) My maths says I need 22 stitches for the pocket lining.

May 4, 2018

Yahoo! It is complete sept for the bath and sewing in 2 ends! (The upper pocket seam still needs sewing.)

What a wonderful pattern/design! I did get lost in a few spots, armhole ribbing and pocket ribbing, but no one would notice. Not a big deal because I have made pockets previously and have done a ribbed edge on sleeves so instincts took over and I have an amazing vest to show for it!

I knit to 12” before starting the hem ribbing.
314 grams

May 5, 2018

This yarn stretched a lot with it’s bath and looked sloppy in the front with uneven front edge when dry. Could not leave it like that so I sprayed the front panels down with some water and popped it into a hot dryer to smarten it up. I LOVE it but it lost a bit of the length all round so I am glad that I went longer to start with. (It lost 2” and now is at 10”) It’s not a bad thing.. now I don’t have to worry about sitting on it and stretching it that way.

SO FREAKING SOFT! (Way softer than my grey Piuma!!!)

The only things I would change, if I could, would be the shoulders. I love how they are shaped but there is no definition there… no firmness. (Like what a shoulder seam would provide.) It is probably only an issue with floppy, no sproing yarn like my cashmere but it seems to be missing something there. This is probably leading to the other thing I would change and that is to maybe add some short rows to the back to give it an inch or 2 more length. It seems to ride forward and make it appear to short in the back. Maybe if the shoulders had more structure, the back would stay put? I might play with some crab stitching with the shoulder/neck area and see if this helps.

May 14, 2018

Mind the pics of me… First thing in the morning and not quite awake yet but I felt like taking pics! LOL

I have barely taken this sweater off… I could live in this… heck, I wish to be buried in it, K?

The cashmere boucle IS going to pill, I just know it , but it matters NOT as it is one of the coziest things I have ever worn!