The third and last garment in my Bernardathon is done!

Pattern: Slinky Ribs from Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard
Yarn: Paton’s Fireside

I made some adjustments to the pattern. Firstly I left off the button-up front bit. Then I extended the sleeves to be full length. The latter required frogging most of a sleeve, because when I had the ribbing end at the same place as it did on the body the widening effect of the stocking stitch section above the elbow made the sleeve shape a bit weird.

What I like most about this jumper is that I can wear it with a collarless top underneath. (I always wear a skivvy or top underneath anything but cotton or silk, because I have very sensitive itch-prone skin.) What I like least is how low the neckline turned out – but only because I anticipate that I’m going to get a bit cold in winter. I like the look of it, however.

I’ve returned to the Ivy League Vest for now. Here’s where I was up to when I put it aside. I’m very tempted to just cast off where I’d got to and turn it into a bag. I can’t face shaping the neck at the same time as shaping the sides and then armholes. I could simplify things by dividing for the neck at the same time as the armholes, and give it a square neck opening so I don’t have to do two kinds of shaping at the same time. I’ve made myself knit another few rows to see if I could revive my enthusiasm… and I’m still of two minds. Trouble is, one of the reasons I only knit a few things at a time is that if I stop working on something I usually lose interest.

Thanks to A New Dress A Day I’ve become a little bit obsessed with refashioning clothing from my wardrobe lately. It turns out that I’m not very good at remembering to take before or progress photos, however. As an offshoot to this, I’ve also been experimenting with handstitched clothing made from rectangles and squares – which relates to making things out of fabric I’ve woven, scarves, table/bed linen, etc. while minimising seams and tweaking of patterns to fit.

The cat still thinks I disapprove of him sleeping in the basket.

Who has outsmarted who, eh?