FO :: Fair Isle Yoke Vest

I find the name of my blog misleading. It is not that I do not knit, I just rarely talk about the process and the projects. I find I post up a picture and sometimes upload to Ravelry, but rarely make an effort to blog about the project itself. Not so with this FO, folks. I am very happy to present the finished Fair Isle for the Ravelry Vestuary project. Just in time too.

I saw Lolly's project last month and though I had absolutely no plans to knit myself a sweater after the mania of Christmas knitting, I could not stop thinking about it. Her version was gorgeous and very practical for my side of the world. Sleeveless and striking and stockinette in the round...I thought, this could be done.

The matter of yarn settled itself quickly, I had 6 skeins of Lion Brand organic cotton languishing for three years plus in the stash cubes. I bought it with the idea of Bean sweaters but it never came to be. My swatch was on gauge with size 6 needles and I knew cotton would work well for the body as I get way too hot in wool. I gathered the leftover Knitpicks Telemark from the myriad of Xmas Gifts and swatched a few colors. I had my yoke yarn at the ready. And then I started to get really excited.

The body went by quickly, cotton is not the easiest on the fingers row after row, but the shaping kept my interest. I did follow the pattern roughly, but I always place my side shaping according to my measurements to better accomodate my, um, shapely middle, shall we call it? And this goes the same for the bust area. Once I reached the yoke I was in knit heaven.

The way the colors blend and unfold and reveal themselves...made it hard to put it down. I found the pattern well written and the chart easy to follow, but I always stumble on the transition between chart rows. I tend to get cocky after a few repeats of the pattern and forget where to stop. Somewhere in the back right shoulder is a line of not so neat colored stitches, but I am figuring they will go mostly unnoticed.

A few things about the pattern. I should have listened to Lolly's recommendation to go down a few needle sizes on the moss stitch edging for the sleeves. They flutter a little too much. But I might thread some elastic through and gather the sleeves for an impromptu ruffle, the sweater seems sweet enough to carry that. Also, I am not too fond of the guts inside.

Weaving ends is the knitter's bane. I admit they are all hiding out still, I took the photos anyway.

I love the way fair isle looks from the inside.

It makes me want to knit something inside out some day, there seems to be such order and flow in the weaving of the colors. And I really love the yoke. Oh, I love the yoke. It is like a beautiful colored necklace and it makes me glad the cotton was a nice neutral, to better set of their jeweled tones. Okay, I have waxed poetic enough.

I am pretty sure the cotton will grow with wear, but I can live with that. Here are the boys who now love to get in front of the camera when I have the self timer going. Something about the beeping.


I hope to have some good Spring time wear out of this sweater, plans for a night out Saturday will give it an opportunity to be seen in public. Glad I made it for the February deadline (it was getting close) but now I am pondering what to knit next.

And, the little birds have taken up residence in my kitchen until I can find just the right fallen branch.

Every time Mace sees them he asks me "Birdie, eats?" and offers them whatever snack in hand. See, this is why I make things.

And L.A.

Sometimes I just love living here. City far enough to stay out of my business, close enough to see. Took this from the driver seat headed down a hill close to our home. Then I saw the CHP officer on the side of the road and hid the camera. If it is illegal to talk on the cell phone, I am sure they frown upon photography from the driver seat.

Happy weekend, all. Hope it is filled with lots of fun weekending stuff.