My first Knit From Your Books project is done, which is a nice surprise. I was expecting to finish the Sock Challenge first, but I wound up knitting the vest at the con in preference to the William Street socks because it was mostly brainless garter stitch.

From: Folk Vests
Yarn: Crucci camel hair doubled, from adopted stash, dyed by me
Needles: 10.5mm Denise circulars
Comments: The smallest sizings in this book are pretty big, so I chose to knit a gauge that was tighter than the specified one so I’d get a smaller garment.

There’s a discrepency in the gauge of the pattern. It says it’s 14st to 10cm. But (for the small size) the stitch count for the body is 166st and the finished size 102-107cm. If you knit this pattern, check the math.

Here it is mimicking the flat presentation in the book:

Some of the yarn I started with was cream and some blue, so when I dyed it the latter came out a little darker. I staggered the joining of new balls of yarn so the join for one strand happened halfway through the ball for the other strand. Starting with two dark balls, I changed to one dark and one medium, then all medium for the middle of the vest, then reversing to get the same graduating effect for the shoulders.

Being garter stitch, the vest is thick and drapey. The camel yarn was lovely and soft to work with, but as soon at it touched my neck my skin started to prickle, so I now know that I’m as sensitive to it as I am to wool. Yay for skivvies.

I love the vest, and hope I’ll get a few chances to wear it before the summer heat starts. (Also, I know I’m doing the classic ‘model holds garment closed to conceal a flaw’ pose here, but I do intend to pin it closed with a shawl pin. I just didn’t have one at hand.)

We had a fantastic time in Canberra. There was stash enhancement. There was car knitting (but not much because my hands were giving warning twinges). There was plenty of KIP. I rescued a friend who had dropped some stitches on the shawl she was knitting on huge wooden needles. And I met a big burly Singaporean man lamenting that he couldn’t take his bamboo circulars on the plane, who later helped the friend I rescued remember how to cast off.

It was a great convention, too.

I have some catch-up blogging to do. Firstly, this turned up the day we left:

An order from Simply Sock Yarn, containing Dream In Colour Smooshy in ‘gothic rose’, Fleece Artist Sea Wool in ‘amethyst’ and Crystal Palace Panda Cotton in red. I ordered the latter for the non-wool socks of my Sock Challenge, and decided to try out the other two to make the postage worthwhile. Unfortunately, being the complete drip I am, I forgot to order two balls. I realised straight away and shot off an email asking what I should do. The seller replied a while later saying she had missed my email and offered to send a second skein with free postage, which is very generous.

When that skein arrives I can choose any pattern from Knitty, as I only specified it had to be non-wool. Which one to make? In the meantime, I did get started on the William Street socks during my week away, but only got halfway along the foot. They certainly make for bulky socks, but since I spend most of my time at home in slippers that won’t be a problem.

On the way home from Canberra we just happened to stop at Tarcutta for lunch, so I had to have a look in the Farmhouse Industries shop to see if there was any more Annie Gregg hand-dyed yarn, didn’t I? I found thse four skeins of merino angora blend.

So soft. So pretty. So much stash enhancement that it makes me giddy.