Blue Marigold

So, here it is, the Blue Marigold Vest in all its glory.

And my sad attempts at photography (Every photo I took made me look five thousand pounds. I need to keep a photographer on standby when I get close to finishing a project).

This was an awesome pattern. I was intruged by it when I was looking for something to knit with approximately 500 yards of Sublime Cashmere Merino Silk DK (Oh yeah. Think about that. You imagining the softness? Yeah, it's better than that). It was $6 dollars, which I was almost hesitant to pay because it is not a Ravelry download, meaning if I lost it I would have to purchase it again rather than just going to my handy Ravelry library and printing it again (no bias here). I actually did have trouble with the website when I bought it, my download link didn't work, but I emailed about it and the designer got back to me right away with an attached copy of the pattern so that I could cast on right away. Which I so totally did.

What do I love about this pattern? My, my, so much to say. It is extremely well written. She has it organized into sections, like an outline, which makes it much easier to keep track of where you are. Also, there is an explanation of how to add waist shaping in the stockinette in the round section if you wish. I have never done waist shaping before, but decided to give it a try and love the result.

Also, the entire reason I bought this pattern is because she has three different ways to do the edging on the armholes. Even though I opted not to have the ruffles seen in the pattern photos I still got these really sweet capsleeve style shoulders thanks to the way the top-down construction works (won't go into detail because you should just buy it and make it for yourself). The construction of the "V" part of the vest is also very cute and very logical when you go back to do the edging. Its feminine details like these that make me love a well thought-out pattern. I did go back and seam the edging to the body of the vest, but that is because I'm bad at picking up stitches. Because she gives you a lot of leeway to size the vest to fit your body type (which I love) she does not have a specific number of stitches to be picked up, so I made a nice mess of it.

The yarn was also a lot of fun to work with. I'm really glad I have another colorway to knit up (I'm thinking Alana Dakos' Spring Garden Tee). The only problem I have is that after I joined it in the round my tension changed and I could not get it to be as tight as I wanted. I think this is because I had to go up to size 6s to get gauge. If I did it again I might have gone down a needle size and knit the next size up. Maybe.

I was actually really disappointed when I put on the vest after I finished because it looked handmade (you know, like those Christmas ornaments you secretly wish your mom would throw away already?). But then I blocked it. I'm once again a believer in blocking. The silk content of the yarn gave the vest this nice draping and the shaping tightened up just a touch. I love it. And it's so soft I'm still wearing it.

Mr. Irish Bear is proud of his work.

Knitting Therapy

Sunday was probably one of the hardest days ever for me. Everyone is ok, but there was a small crisis that I will not go into detail about, and through it all I just kept knitting (well I also baked, but we don't want to talk about my love of piling cans of vegetables, beans, and various broth into the crock pot and hoping it comes out tasting yummy).

I knit and I knit and I knit . . .

And I finished the Blue Marigold Vest. Now, I knit almost all of the stockinette portion while doing the thousands of pages of reading I've been doing (grad school might do wonders for my sweater knitting if I stay this addicted to stockinette while reading), but the edging took a lot of work. Having something in my hands, something to work with and concentrate on that didn't require as much thinking as anything school related, was the best thing for me. I know, I'm not doing it justice, and I'm being super vague, but I feel the need to once again acknowledge the therapeutic powers of knitting.

Better pictures and explanation of the fun knitting tomorrow. Right now I have more reading and a gauge swatch to attend to.

Front Porch Knitting

I've been doing a lot of this lately:

The roommate bought some porch chairs while I was in DC, so my new routine in the evenings is to come outside to read. Because I'll I do is read I've been making steady progress on the stockinette portion of the Blue Marigold Vest while enjoying the view (the nicer portion of the view, minus the dumpsters).

It's still deadly hot here on the coast, but in the late evening it is absolutely gorgeous.

Inching Away

Because I'm taking my comp exam this semester in addition to classes, I'm doing a lot more reading than knitting for the foreseeable future. Fortunately, Mr. Irish Bear has taken to stockinette like a pro.

He likes it so much that he is already scoping out our next project while I read books likeRethinking the Holocaust and Labour in Power (sounds fun, no?).

Some Progress

I joined the Ms. Marigold vest in the round last night. I wanted to try it on to be sure that 11.5 inches is a deep enough V for my size, but I think I'm going to have to trust the pattern on this one. While the vest is knit top-down, I have yet to figure out how to try on a top that is knit in the round without having it fall off the needles.

But while I may not be able to, Mr. Irish Bear agreed to model for me in exchange for knitting lessons.

We've decided that this blue totally suits him.