Borrowed Knitscene Fall 2009 from Shannon, and copied this vest pattern. The smallest size was about an inch bigger than I wanted in the chest. Considering the sample was knit in bulky weight on 6 mm needles with a gauge of 14 sts/10cm, I thought I would wing it and use an aran weight on 5 mm with a working gauge of 12 sts/10 cm, and see what would happen.
Rowan Scottish Tweed Aran was on sale at Urban Yarns, 4 balls should do it. I worked up the swatch, t'was a bit crunchy, but I forged on. I knit up the back and fronts, adding side shaping along the way (one set of decreases and increases an inch below and above the waist). I also added an half-inch of ribbing to make it a bit longer.
Short row shaping within the ribbed sleeves made the cap hug my arm a bit better.
I knew I was running out of yarn while working the hood, so I picked up less sts and began decreases earlier. There are lots of comments on ravelry about the hood being really big so I was okay with this, for me the hood is strictly for "the look." I still had the band to do, too, so I did not want to take any chances. The pattern said to do a three needle bind off for the hood, but I grafted it for a perfect seam.
When picking up sts for the button band, I merely went for a multiple of 5, picking up approximately 3 sts every 4 rows or so, reading my knitting as I went along.
Buttons made from "horn," combined with wool tweed make for a nice rustic look.
Sweet sweater.
You did a beautiful job on this! Really, I am quite impressed with all your knitting projects! Stay warm!
ReplyDeleteKelly