The story of vestish. It starts back in the Spring of ’08 with the release of the Spring knitty. Totally fell in love with honeycomb, but was sorely lacking any dk weight yarn in my stash at that time. (That problem has been dutifully solved, now the only weight lacking is bulky. Which will be rectified too, because my goal is to have my own personal yarn shop.) Now I was looking around for yarn that I wanted to use, then Diane went and knit one out of dream in color classy. Which I was able to see it in person at Soar, and after that I knew that I had to knit one for myself…
and then I thought about all those little cables repeated quite frequently across the vest. And my dislike of cabling without a cable needle… lets just say I wasn’t in the moood for cabling. I picked up 2 hanks of this awesome blue (deep seaflower) during a trip to Natural Stitches. Soon after I purchased the dream in color classy I saw Lolly’s cedar vest and fell in love with the texture. Thought why not some alternating rib? It has a good texture, and easy to knit.
After a few hours of looking through many stitch dictionaries, and doing some math calculations I came up with my cast on number and started. Knit and knit, and then once I had a few inches I tried it on. Well now, lets just say I forgot how much give ribbing has along with negative ease. Off to the frog pond and cast on again with a smaller number this time remembering to calculate ease. (duH) Basically I was knitting on the fly, I kept some notes which I hope might help someone. Really if it wasn’t for other knitting blogs I don’t think I would be where I am with my knitting today. Anyway,
here are my notes, or unpattern if you will.
Vest to fit 32-33″ bust, ribbing has enough stretch to accommodate up to 36″ however you might want to add more length, because when knitting is stretched width wise it loses length.
needles- I used US 8 (5mm)
yarn- Dream in color classy 1.25 skeins in deep seaflower
gauge- 5sts/inch x 7 rows/inch in pattern
stitch holder or extra circular needle to hold stitches.
stitch pattern- alternating 2×2 rib
rounds 1,2,3,&4- *k2, p2, rep from*
round 5- *knit 2 stitches tog and leave stitch on left hand needle, knit first stitch and slip both stitches off needle together, p2, rep from*
rounds 6,7,8,9 &10- *p2,k2, rep from*
round 11- *p2, knit 2 stitches tog and leave stitch on left hand needle, knit first stitch and slip both stitches off needle together, rep from*
round 12- *k2,p2, rep from*
CO 112, knit 1.5″ of k2, p2. Start stitch pattern. Knit 7 repeats, more if you want. (My vest is a little short, I probably should have knit one more repeat.) After you’ve knit the amount of repeats that you want to, knit the next 6 rows as in pattern.
Back-
row 7- BO 6 stst at the beginning of the row, knit the next 56 sts in pattern, put remaining stitches on hold (stitches on hold are the front of the vest). You’ll be working back and forth now, not in the round. Because of this you when working a wrong side row you’ll have to change the purls to knits and the knits to purls. So they look right on the right side.
row 8- BO 6sts, knit as in pattern to end.
row 9- BO 4 sts, knit in pattern to end.
row 10- BO 4 sts knit in pattern to end.
row 11 and 1- BO 2 knit in pattern to end.
row 12 and 2- BO 2 knit as in pattern to end.
Continue knitting in pattern for 2 more repeats, knit to row 6 in pattern than place 8sts on hold, BO 18sts, knit and than place 8sts on hold. Leave a long tale and cut working yarn.
Front-
working with the stitches that where placed on hold, again you’ll be working back and forth so change the purls to knits, and knits to purls on the wrong side rows again. At this point, I’m leaving it up to you to figure out where you are in the stitch pattern. This isn’t as hard as it sounds.
row 1- (in pattern) BO 4sts, knit 12 as in pattern than place on hold for right front strap.
Front left strap- (18 sts total) with a new ball of yarn, BO 22, k12 as in pattern.
next row BO 2, knit 10 as in pattern, next row BO 2, knit 8 in pattern.
Knit 1 pattern repeat (I should have knit 1.5 so my arm holes where deeper, They are fine however a bit snug under a button down shirt.) than, 4 rows of pattern, cut long tail, graft these stitches with the ones that you put on hold for the left back. Repeat for the other side using the ball that’s attached. Weave in ends, marvel at your knitting awesomeness. And be shocked at how skinny and long the vest looks.
Started June 4 2009, Completed June 12 2009 9th nakniswemodo. I need more vests. Anyway, enjoy my unpattern if you knit it please let me know. If you have any questions about it, or find any errors drop me a line. mistress_stash_enhancer (at) yahoo (dot) com
Copyright Amanda Cathleen Morgan 2009. Pattern is for personal, non-commercial use only. Do not reproduce the pattern for distribution, sale or any other purpose with out written permission from the designer. Finished items may not be sold. Pictures, patterns, text and content are the sole property of Amanda Cathleen Morgan. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this pattern is strictly prohibited
Mistress Stash Enhancer 