FO: Cabled V-neck Vest

Love this vest! I wore it to work yesterday, and it passed the fit test (doesn’t droop, shift, stretch, or otherwise fit strangely with actual use), always a pleasant find. And it provided just the right amount of warmth with a short sleeve shirt in my cold office but I could still walk out to lunch. Score!

Cabled V-neck Vest (or Slipover in Ms. Bliss’ parlance)(Rav link)

• Debbie Bliss Magazine, Fall/Winter 2008
• Rowan Soft Tweed, Twig, approx. 5.4 skeins (~470 yds)
• US11 and US13 needles
• Size: 35 in bust (knit pattern for M to get S because of yarn sub)

These were after work Monday, with my hair did and actual wearing of jewelry. Late Sunday, we took some pics with a more casual top as a layer (please ignore my “Sunday” hair)…

I made many mods, but not to the style, only the construction and, of course, the yarn sub. On the whole, I had originally wanted it just a tad larger, more like the pattern photo. But my gauge swatch grew quite a lot with wet blocking, and I knew there was potential for a larger piece of fabric (i.e., the garment) to expand even more. So I erred on the small side when deciding how many stitches to cast on – following the directions for the M and not adding any more stitches. Turns out the sweater blocked out to more or less the exact gauge as my swatch! Funny that. The swatch didn’t lie. But I really like the way it fits regardless and I’d rather it just fit than be too big.

I have many DB patterns about, but I think this may be my first project. I found the pattern very clear and error free, with one small exception. In the initial line-by-line directions for the shaping of the right front neckline, seed stitch portion of the pattern was off by one, meaning where it should have started with a K, it was a P, and so on. However, this could also completely have been a fluke on my part and is very easy to “fix” as we all know what seed stitch should be and don’t necessarily need to follow the pattern for that.

I subbed a yarn with a gauge of about 3 st=in instead of the 2.5 called for, so I followed the pattern for a M to get about a S and added one 16-row repeat of the center cable in the body to achieve adequate length. All of my mods were aimed at eliminating bulky seams, as I thought (hoped) the seed stitch fabric and lofty yarn would provide enough structure that the lack of seams wouldn’t cause droopage.

I worked a tubular cast on at the bottom edge, casting on the front and back stitches together to work in the round. Ordinarily I eliminate an intended seam stitch from the count, but in this case it would have played havoc with the seed stitch repeat (multiple of 2-stitches) and made following the directions for the center cable for difficult than need be. Also to make following the given directions easier, I opted to divide for the arms at the same time I started the v-neck, although the bottom of the armhole would be higher than the V. I went back after the the rest of the garment was done and seamed a couple inches or so to make the armhole the depth I wanted.

I worked a 3-needle bind of at the shoulders – gosh I love me a 3-needle bind off! And the final seam-eliminating mod was to attached the neck ribbing to the back neck as it was knitted, like an attached i-cord. As you can see in the pictures, this was more successful on one side than the other. It must have been something about how I was picking on the body stitches on the right side, the resulting stitches aren’t as tidy. Finally, I grafted the two neckband ends together – which could also have been neater. Kitchener stitch is not my forte. Ah well. Live and learn. Practice makes perfect. Something like that. Even though my hair is shorter now, I don’t expect that strangers will be going around inspecting the back neck of my sweater