Finished Object: Handspun Striped Vest
This one’s been a long time coming. I am a failure at knit-alongs. Ages ago, a friend and I decided to make handspun striped vests. As with our The Great Adult Tomten Two Person Knit-Along, Jared finished his, and I, uh, did not. (That thing looks awful on me, I just can’t do bulky garter stitch with my bewbs.) Striped vests? Same thing. We stopped planning knit-alongs after that. Ha!
Jared, I’m done! He looks cute in it! I’m super late to this game, obviously, as Jared’s vest is now a pattern and 22 people have knit it/are knitting it, including at least one other in my fiber, the lovely David’s, which is super fun to see. I didn’t use his pattern, but they’re totally the same idea.
The Info:
Pattern: my made-to-measure
Yarn: my handspun Spicery Shetland wool yarn and Shetland yarn from Whitney Acres Farm, which is down the road from the pizza place in the next town over.
Needles: 7 for the body and 5 for the ribbing
Size: 40″ with no ease- the fit reminds me of a schoolboy’s vest
This vest was knit in the round with steeks to preserve the color shifts on both sides of the v-neck. I did crochet steek reinforcements, like for this vest and this vest. It’s so tidy, makes knitting so much simpler, and looks so good that I’d never do it another way.
I left no ease (knit a 40″ vest for a 40″ chest) and Mr. HelloYarn felt it was a big snug for his taste. It looked great to me, but with a second, pinned-out wet block (Mr. HelloYarn helped, perhaps because he does not trust me not to strangle him with a tight vest again), it felt great to him, too. No more zero ease for him!
And for the Pippa fans:
Pippa’s doing well, in case you wondered. She’s learning new things every day and now that our village is getting busy (it’s a popular summer tourist stop), she’s getting a taste of crowds. Other than one incident with a woman and an ice cream cone (no ice cream was damaged, but it was certainly threatened), she’s generally made of awesome. :) We’re getting a picket fence in a couple of weeks (what color to paint it is my obsession at the moment, and along with that comes the question of what color to paint the house) and once she has a secure place to really run her head off, we can really get busy with her “circus dog” training. She loves to jump through hoops!
Stuff I love this week:
-Graham Annable’s Children of the Night & Their Dad prints. They’re not only fantastic illustrations, they’re wonderfully, as well.
-Sherman Alexie’s young adult book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. I’d highly recommend this for young people, unlike some other young adult books I’ve read. This one is hilarious, painfully true, and hopeful. If I didn’t already have a crush on Mr. Alexie, I would now!
– True Blood– I can hardly wait for the new season to start on Sunday. I look forward to Eric, Eric, and more Eric and finding out what happened to Lafayette, the skank.
– Those teensy tiny Ravelry symbols alerting you that you’re following a link into Ravelry. Want them for your blog? Here you go– scroll down to the bottom.
26 Responses to “Finished Object: Handspun Striped Vest”
That vest is so awesome. And so is Pippa!
Adrian, it’s such a great looking vest. Don’t you think your fence would look great with every picket a different color?
I agree, that book is fantastic!
I think it’s brilliant! What a fab use of handspun. I think I might need to do one for myself (though I fear what I will look like in it!).
Bravo on a vest well done! It’s stunning!! (And I mean that in the manliest way possible.)
That vest is wonderful – it looks great on Mr. Hello and Pippa is a great accessory. I can’t wait for True Blood either and I think we are in for a LOT of Eric – yum!
I so adore the colours of this vest….looks awesome on your man!…can’t wait to stroll the streets of Shelburne Falls and get some ice cream (I’ll keep a look out for Pippa though)!
This is not going to help with the crushage, but Sherman Alexie is just as cool in person as he is in his writing. That is to say–wicked, hilarious, honest, and sweetly goofy.
It looks great – I love the colors.
I thought it was a law that picket fences must be white?
That dog is SO adorable!!!
Would it be wrong to say I love the current color of your house? Looks incredible with all that greenery. And would look incredible with almost any color you could paint your fence. I await the exciting conclusion!
OH, and I forgot to say: wow, brilliant idea re: steek! I will use that when I redo my Tepoztlan, which needs so many fixes, why not take of the color shifts while I’m in there? It will be my first steek, and the thing after which I will truly feel like a fearless knitter :)
Thanks, Adrian!
It looks GREAT – love that deep brown plus spicery. And with the tatoos and red barn, your photoshoot tooootally kicked mines ass. I kinda want to make another….
Miss you! Let’s catch up soon.
The picket fence should be white, obviously. :)
i love the vest and i love pippa! dude – true blood starts THIS sunday!? i thought it was next sunday! yippeeeeee!
Yeah, I can’t do the knit along thing either. While I think it’s a great idea, I get too easily distracted by pretty yarn. The vest is wonderful. It’s obviously worth the wait.
That vest is totally made of win. :)
I just recently read Sherman’s book too!!!! Loved it. Saw him speak at the ACRL National Conference in Seattle in March. Very funny in person. And he read some of his poetry.
Have you read “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven”? I read it and that’s what made me fall in love with Sherman Alexie. “The Business of Fancydancing” was good too.
fab vest, great colors!
Great vest! Thanks for explaining the Ravelry links.
The vest looks great! Btw–I finished Season 5 of The Wire. I’m heartbroken that it’s over but holy cow, a lot of crazy stuff happens that I totally didn’t see coming!
Nice vest! but Sweet pup!!! What kind of pup is she?
What’s happening to Lafayette is pretty darn scary. I think that there was a little more funny tension between the real and vampire worlds in last season, I kind of miss that.
The vest is gorgeous and your model makes it look super cool with the natty check shirt underneath.
That turned out simply fantabulous! Mr. HelloYarn did an awesome modeling job, and my kids are going gaga over Pippa!
Happy knitting-
ali
Love the vest – it’s beautiful! And I love the dog! And the house looks wonderful! And how many exclamation marks I use!!!