Back to Work U-neck Vest

It's the Back to School vest pattern but really it's back to work tomorrow. My four day weekend has flown by so quickly, and yet, I've probably eaten enough to last me a week.

Finished it over a week ago but didn't have time to take a picture in daylight. I wore it to Thanksgiving dinner and look forward to wearing it many more times to come. It's a very wearable vest and easy (fast) to knit too. I don't have any complaints about it, other than I should've made the body a little bit longer. It tends to ride up a little bit at the bottom, but I haven't blocked it yet either. That might take care of it, but it's not a big deal.

Pattern: BTS U-neck vest from Fitted Knits by Stefanie Japel

Size: 34

Yarn: Cascade 220 heathers (purple)

2 skeins with just a little bit leftover

Needles: US 8 (5mm) and US5 (3.75mm)

Back to School U-neck Vest WIP

With my shawl FO behind me, I quickly cast-on for a new project, the Back to School U-neck vest from Fitted Knits. Besides my red scarf, for the past two months I've mainly been working with sock yarn and lace weight yarn. Thin stuff that seemed to take forever to progress. Now I'm back to worsted weight yarn (not thick, but way thicker than the other two), and I'm motoring through the vest pattern. It's only been a week, but I'm more than half way done and this is what it looks like.


And I got my Ravelry t-shirt in the mail this week too :)

New things. I came across a new video podcast, Knitterati, by Nina Casey. It's more like a film short or documentary, rather than a talk show. Although this is her first episode, I thought she did a great job in terms of interviewing her knitters and editing the whole video into one flowing piece. I'm not sure how far she plans to go with this format, but it would be intriguing to see if she probes deeper into why her knitters knit, how knitting has changed or incorporated into their lives, etc. Maybe that's not going to be the focus of her video podcasting, but I already can see glimmers of this kind of documentary in her work. Pretty cool! I look forward to Episode 2. Check it out.

Kiri Shawl

Although I finished knitting this a week ago, here are pictures of my new shawl. This yarn is deceptively warm. It looks wisp thin, but all that mohair really retains the heat.

Pattern: Kiri

Yarn: 2 balls of Rowan Kidsilk Haze

Needles: US7 (4.5mm) and US8 (5mm) for bind-off

~60inches wide and ~30 inches from neck to triangle point at bottom

With two balls of Kidsilk Haze, I managed to fit 10 repeats of chart 2 before completing chart 3 and binding off. Thanks to Polly for the advice about my leaf "burn rate" per ball of yarn. To be safe, I counted 70 leaves for the first ball. Great pattern! I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to knit their first lace shawl.

On the Blocking Board

This is Kiri blocked on my new mats! Pretty cool how all the lumpy leaves straightened out after soaking the shawl in water and pinning everything into place.

My pictures are kind of dark, aren't they? I'm still learning how to take good pictures of my knits.