striped blue and yellow vest for my boy

B has been asking me for a yellow sweater since last year.  This kid loves yellow, totally in love with it.  His second fav is blue followed closely by green. After I knit my stripy sweater B told me how much he liked the stripes.  An idea was born. Especially since I can’t bring myself to knit this awesome kid a yellow sweater.

Last year when Web’s had their annual tent sale I stocked up on some cascade 220 in colors 2404 (navy blue) and 7827 (yellow) to make this vest for B. And of course I over bought, meaning I bought 2 hanks of each color. For some reason I was thinking that it would take way more yardage than it actually did. Waaay more. The yellow I only used a little more than half a ball (64%) and the blue I used 1 ball and 17 yards of another one. I really hate having to dip into another skein just for a few yards. However I’m really happy that I had it. Now it wasn’t until after I was all done knitting B’s vest, as I was weaving in all the ends I remembered, I had knit a swatch. I could have ripped out the swatch for the extra yarn. But then I would have a swatch to cut up for an upcoming class that I’m taking at Stitch your art out on steeking. (Really excited here!)

Speaking of the swatch, that was my starting point for this sweater. I picked two needles I thought would work well with Cascade 220, US6’s for the ribbing so it would be nice and tight and US8’s for the body. I knit my swatch in the round because well I planned on knitting 3/4 of this sweater in the round. While my swatch was blocking I measured B’s waist and chest along with the distance from his hip to his underarm, and from his shoulder down his back to his hip. And drew up a cute little schematic that I didn’t photograph. Moving on… I took my gauge multiplied it by the chest circumference and made the number a little bigger so it was divisible by 4 (since I used k2,p2 ribbing for the waist band, neck and arm bands). See this whole winging it isn’t so hard. I should mention, when it came to figuring out how wide the arm straps should be it was pretty handy to have the kid around to have him try on the sweater.

raveled here.
Pattern: my own
Size: 24″ chest (9 year old boy wears a 7/8) with 1.5” positive ease (so it will hopefully grow with him)
Started January 10 2010
Completed January 18 2010
Needles: US 6 (4.0 mm) for ribbing and US 8 (5.0 mm) for body
Yarn: Cascade Yarns 220 Wool 1.08 skeins 2404 (navy blue) and .64 skeins 7827 (yellow)

A few little things that I did, first I made the darkest color my main color because well I thought it would look better, besides the dark blue makes the vest feel heavy. And oh, just a tip, don’t change colors after knitting ribbing, it will look messy. I can’t really explain it! Just trust me or try it and you’ll see what I mean. I used a stationary jogless stripe which I put so it was right under the right arm, so I didn’t have a million ends to weave in. Can you see where I switched colors? Its visible, not smack in your face look at me visible. But you can spot them. I started this vest in the round and when I got to the underarms I split the stitches in half. Half for the front, and half for the back. First I knit the back, cause its easier for me to do it that way. Now, I’m not sure if this is ‘right’ or ‘correct’ but hell when have I been ‘correct’ with my knitting, but after I divided the front and back I was knitting flat, still using my circular needle. And since my stripes are 3 rows wide when it was time to change colors the next color would be on the other side, following me here? So instead of cutting the yarn I turned my work, and start knitting with the next color, keeping in mind that if it was a purl row I would purl back. So I was continuing to knit in stockinette. Make sense? Not ‘correct’, my row gauge didn’t change or anything important like that. But it sure as heck worked for me. And I had WAY less ends to weave in. Which always makes me happy. Which leads to a happy B with his new blue and yellow striped vest.

PS. Somebody, which would be Kailey, turned THREE! Yesterday.

Can you believe it? I can’t.
PPS My parents visited this past weekend, it was wonderful to have them here.
PPPS Can you tell that I started this post earlier and am now finishing it up and I’m wickedly tired like a pack of Daisy GS ran me over.

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last knit of 2009 and the first knit(s) of 2010

yeah, yeah, yeah its over 2 weeks into the new year. Even though I’m participating in a year in pictures, you can see my set of pics here, I’m still having a hard time getting pics of my finished knits. Well, it just might be because the last six things I’ve knit haven’t been for me.
yeah you read that right. The selfish knitter has knit nothing for herself for the past six weeks. Crazy. Crazy. Crazy.

(many twisties fingerless mitts raveled here.)
Remember I knit a pair of fingerless mitts for my kids music teacher? Well I was at the school for one of my kids Christmas party and while I was signing my kids out the music teacher saw me and asked if she could commission me to knit her sister a pair of fingerless mitts. I told her that I would be more than willing to do so, and we talked about colors. Shortly after Christmas I got started after doing a bit of math, and a bit of dream in color classy leftover from my Vestish, in the  most amazing blue.  There was a little bit of frogging involved while I figured out how I wanted the cables to go around the thumb and work the thumb increases in there too.  After I had that pair done I wanted to “test” my pattern,

so I knit a pair in malabrigo worsted for Bryce. Raveled here. I finished casting these off right as the countdown to the new year started in NY times square. Talk about finishing the last knit of 2009 under the wire.  I’ve polished up this pattern of mine, and will be offering it up for sale very, very soon. I am however looking for one more test knitter. Pretty please let me know if your interested.
There is more new hand knits for the boy, his yellow hat that he has been asking for

raveled here. First finished knit of 2010! I have no idea how I finished it in one day but I did. Started in the afternoon after the traditional Pennsylvania Dutch pork ‘n kaut New Year’s meal at the mil (no sauerkraut will be cooked in this house, no matter what Mike says. nope,nope,nope!)
and a pair of felted mittens for B too.

raveled here. All my notes are on rav, its a very loose pattern. I’m not happy with how wide the thumb is, I was expecting it to felt down some more. Next time I won’t increase the thumb as much, Probably one less increase row.  B says these mittens are perfect for playing in the snow, they keep his hands warm even when the snow is stuck to the mitten. He also says that they aren’t very good for wearing to school, they aren’t really bendy. His words not mine. Yep lots of knits for B. Poor boy,  we where lacking boy colored mitts and hats… but that might have something to do with him misplacing them…
One last FO to share. I can’t remember what kid forgot what, but I had to go into the school and one of the secretaries is also a knitter,  she has to be the first person in this area that I’ve met that asked me if I’ve heard about ravelry. Usually its me asking! Yall know how it feels to find a fellow knitter, its awesome to talk knitting with her. She commissioned me to knit her son a slouchy hat, after some math and a trip out to Ohio to visit Mike, a car ride home (where I actually got o be passenger and knit!) I had a finished slouchy hat. I’m really happy with how it turned out, its reversible, the brim maybe folded up so it can be worn as a cap, will grow with the kid, and its wonderfully slouchy. You’ll just have to trust me because the picture that I took before I delivered it really sucks.

raveled here.
I started B’s blue and yellow striped vest Sunday night, its killing me right now not to start a sweater for me. A chunky sweater, with a shawl collar that’s all snuggly warm and soft…. sigh… kinda like sedum but without the seed. In this yarn.  Or a garter yoke sweater with this awesome green yarn for the yoke and some light gray patons merino classic for the body.  I’ve must have lost it because I’m doing all my selfish knitting in my head.

PS. the sun is actually out today. With a gorgeous blue sky. Kailey and I took a little walk after I took the trash out. It was awesome, cold but oh how I’ve missed the sun.
PPS. I got my wheel out last week and have been spinning away. I seem to spin more when I’m knitting things that I don’t really want to be knitting. Like this vest for B… loving momma here, same thing when I was knitting the mittens for my Dad.
PPPS. My parents are coming this weekend and the guest/playroom is crazy trashed.
PPPPS. Attempting potty training Kailey. Its moving, slowly along. Lets just say its a good thing she’s #4, cause if she was #1 there probably wouldn’t be more kids. She’s a little stubborn. hmm. I wonder where she gets that. Mike. Or maybe she just needed bribery to sit on the toilet. Cripes. We’re getting there but the progress is super slow.