Draped Vest - take 2 - Finished!

I finished the knitting on this last week, but didn't finish the assembly until last night.  I had to ravel some of the collar before I could attach it to the back.  The pattern called for 5.25 inches of the collar, but that was over an inch too long.  When I was attaching the collar I marked the center of the back neck, then sewed one side of the collar down, ripped back 11 rows until I was at the center and put those stitches back on a needle.  Then I ripped the other collar back the same amount and grafted the collars together.  After grafting I continued sewing the collar down.  This is an interesting construction because of the way the fronts are sewn to the back.

The stitch pattern ends up at right angles to each other between the front and the back.  When I was knitting the fronts I always attached new balls of yarn in the middle of a row rather than at the edge because the edge needed to look neat and finished.

I'm not sure that I like the view from the back, but the drape is good.  There is one other thing that I really like about the Karabella Aurora 8 yarn, it is always easy to find the start of the ball.  I had to practically turn the Naturally Vienna balls inside out to find the start, and I was not working from the center of the ball.  It was very frustrating.

Pattern:  Naturally Vienna Draped Vest - FC 56
Yarn:  Karabella Aurora 8
Needles:  US 7 (4.5 mm)

Draped Vest - take 2 - Right Front Done

Getting the left front of this vest done inspired me to finish up the right front.  When I blocked this piece I did not let it soak for very long, so it didn't stretch out much.  After I pinned it out I laid the left front on top to make sure they matched.  I've already sewn the left front to the back, except for the neck band.

Before I blocked the right front I wanted to take this picture to show the effect that the blocking had on the piece.  Besides growing a little, you can hopefully see that after blocking the fabric drapes better, and seeing as how this pattern is called "Draped Vest" I thought that better drape was important.

Pattern:  Naturally Vienna Draped Vest - FC 56
Yarn:  Karabella Aurora 8
Needles:  US 7 (4.5 mm)

Draped Vest - take 2 - Left Front Done

I managed to get a fair bit of knitting done this week during telecons.  I probably would have finished this last night, but this past Tuesday I pulled out this project only to discover that I had not put in another ball of yarn and I was almost finished with the one that I was working with.  Calamity!  I ended up doodling jewelry designs instead, which actually wasn't a good idea as it requires far more brain cells than this kind of knitting.  On the other hand I do have some jewelry designs to explore this weekend.

When I was working on this last night (while watching Fistful of Dollars on TCM) I realized that I had made a mistake when I was knitting the first version of the left front.  For some reason I had only done the armhole decreases on right side rows, instead of both right and wrong side rows, resulting in 14 more rows than I should have had.  This got me thinking about my first attempt at this vest and wondering if I would have enough yarn to finish if I went back and fixed that mistake (I didn't frog the project, just bundled it in a bag).  So this morning I pulled out that first attemp, but after working with the Karabella Aurora 8 I just couldn't bring myself to work with the Naturally Vienna yarn.  It is scratchy, and the variegation hides the patterning of the stitches and the cable work, so I bundled it back into its bag and will toss it back onto a high shelf in my studio.The Karabella Aurora 8 is a wonderful yarn to work with, and comes in so many beautiful colors.  The picture is actually far more blue than it should be, the color is actually a deep purple.

I have been using my blocking mats for so long that I had sort of forgotten that I had another blocking board that was gridded, so I pulled it out this morning when I went to block this to make it easier to get the dimensions (the ones that I knew, anyway) correct.  This yarn is interesting.  It knits up into a denser fabric, cushy and textured, but when you wet block it the yarn really relaxes (I haven't tried steam blocking it yet, but I have another project waiting in the wings that will probably require that method).  Most of the effort of blocking is smooshing it back from a stretched out shape with the palm of my hand, and I noticed after I took the photo (photos are great for spotting imperfections in your blocking) that I had missed some spots, which I went back and fixed.

Pattern:  Naturally Vienna Draped Vest - FC 56
Yarn:  Karabella Aurora 8
Needles:  US 7 (4.5 mm)

Draped Vest - take 2 - Back Done

I've been working on a couple of different projects, making progress but not finishing anything, but today I did finish up the back of the Draped Vest, for the second time.  The yarn is Karabella Aurora 8 in purple.  Blocking was a little tricky because it was easy to stretch it out too much and lose the texture.  It does not help that the pattern does not have a schematic, so I don't really know the finished dimensions, and the gauge was given in stockingette stitch, not the pattern stitch, so I can't even calculate what the dimensions should be.  I just pulled the edges out  and then mushed things around a bit until it looked okay.

Pattern:  Draped Vest by Naturally
Yarn:  Karabella Aurora 8
Needle:  US 7 (4.5 mm)

Houston, we have a problem...

So, I was happily knitting away on my Draped Vest, amazed at how quickly I was knitting the right front when I got a very bad feeling.  I counted my yarn labels, and examined my completed pieces, and checked the pattern, and re-checked my gauge (spot on, for once), and weighed everything, and have now come to the conclusion that I do not have enough yarn to finish the project.  According to the label, the yarn is supposed to come in 50 g balls.  According to my scale, I am about 16 grams short overall.  The pattern calls for 8 balls for the small size.  I bought 8 balls.  But it now looks like every one was about 2 grams short, on average.  Sigh.

Well, maybe this is a blessing in disguise.  I really am not that crazy about the yarn, it is just a bit scratchier than I like.  I do, however, like the pattern.  And I do have some purple Aurora 8 in my stash that might make a good substitute...

It has just been one of those days.  I also decided that I wasn't happy with my Fresh Ink Cardigan and decided to frog that.  The yarn just deserves a better pattern.  Not sure what, yet, but I have been browsing the pattern library on Ravelry.

Draped Vest - Left Front Done

In keeping with my determination to finish some of my older works in progress, I picked this one back up.  I have been working on it here and there, when I was taking a break from other things, but today I finished up the left front.  This one hasn't been languishing quite as long as the last two.  I started it this year, on January 11.  The pattern is Naturally Vienna Draped Vest - and is from the Naturally Leaflet FC 56.  I received the pattern for free when I bought the yarn from elann.com.  You can great discounts on yarn there and I subscribe to their mailings.  The yarn is Naturally Vienna, 67% wool, 33% acrylic, Aran weight.  I don't usually knit with the heavier weight yarns, mostly because I don't like working with larger needles.  Size 8 (5 mm) is about the limit for me from a comfort perspective, much bigger than that and they just feel awkward.  The curious thing about this yarn is the variability of the skeins, even in the same dyelot.  The yarn is plied, black, gray and white, and depending upon the dominant color you end up with some very different results.  I know that I could have alternated skeins, but then I would have just had stripes instead of blocks.  I prefer to just let the yarn do what it wants to.

Pattern:  Naturally Vienna Draped Vest
Yarn:  Naturally Vienna
Needle:  US 7 (4.5 mm)

Draped Vest

As much as I am a fiber-holic, one thing I do try to do is buy yarn for projects, rather than just buying yarn for the sake of buying yarn.  This is a rule that lately has been more honored in the breach, but it is still a rule that I try to be mindful of.  This purchase was off the elann.com web site, a great place for getting bargains.  The yarn is Vienna by Naturally, a 10 ply (so they say) that is 63% wool, 33% acrylic.  I don't usually go for acrylics (not since my early days of knitting), but I liked the pattern and I wanted to try something a little different, hence the Charcoal.  I tend to go for colors - not much of a neutrals girl.  After finishing up the shawl I wanted a simpler knit, but something a little different, so here we are.

I am knitting this one pretty much according to the instructions, no rewriting to avoid seaming.  The only thing I am doing is keeping the selvedge stitch in pure knit, no purls, just to make the seaming a little easier.  I do wonder about the pattern instructions though (they were free with the yarn purchase).  There is no schematic and the instructions do seem to be a little brief.  This is the back, and I have started on the left front.