FO: Argyle Vest

PATTERN:
Argyle Pullover from Special Knits by Debbie Bliss.
This is the third pattern I've made from this book - I love the little accents and embellishments that make the knits in the book just a little special and generally I've found the sizing to be a little more realistic that some other Debbie Bliss patterns I've tried (ie they actually fit the size given and don't have 2 inches of postive ease).

YARN:
Spotlight's Merino 8ply - 1.2 balls of main colour and a tiny bit of 2 contrast colours (pattern size is 3-6mth). This yarn is labelled as an 8ply however it is very fine and to me feels more like 5ply. I bought this with the intention of using it as a (much less expensive!) sub for Baby Cashmerino - I got pattern gauge with the recommended needles so I think my yarn fondling skills are not so shabby after all.


I love how this turned out, very cute indeed. The argyle is fiddly but not terribly difficult - I think it makes it look quite smart . My first completed Christmas present - for new nephew K. I'm feeling very organised right now!


This vest has made me realise that perhaps I'm maturing as a knitter - the pattern just says "decrease at each end..." or " decrease at neck edge for..." and yet I knew that if I did fully fashioned decreasing (ie one stitch in from the edge) it would look neater and would be easier to pick up stitches for neck and arm bands later. And that I could make the decreases slope the right way by doing ssk on one side and K2tog on the other. I took "sew up side seams" to mean do this in mattress stitch for an invisible seam. I also chose to reverse the colours of the argyle on the front so that the colours would alternate properly all the way round the vest. I also added 2 extra stitches to either side of the front because my colour work was just one stitch from the edge- I knew once I seamed I'd get a messy bit where the colour blocks would be too close to each other so added in a little allowance for the seam.

I know none of this is exactly rocket science but I'm pretty pleased I could execute some little techniques to make this FO "hand made" rather than "home made" without having to have it all spelled out.