Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Improvisational vest of many purples

I finally finished my funky, scrappy vest of many purples. 😁

Here's a link to my Ravelry project page.

Following the very helpful and detailed guidance at Karen Templer's Fringe Association blog, I decided to make a V-neck vest in stripes that would use up some of the scraps in my stash.

Following the instructions for a shaped back of the neck sweater, I started with an i-cord cast on and continued the i-cord throughout along the vest front edges. I wanted the vest to have a deep V, so I increased the front every fourth row. (I decided that if I make another one of these, I'll increase every-other row next time.)

Worked the body in garter stitch with one stockinette row inset at every 20th row for a bit of textural interest. The stripes change color simply where each particular scrap ball ran out. (It would have been "neater" to only change colors while working RS rows, yes, but this project was intended to use up stash scraps, so by golly, I used each scrap up completely.) :-)

I wanted the bottom to have a sort of handkerchief hem effect in the front and be longer in front than the back, so after achieving sufficient width for the front edges of the vest to meet (increasing every fourth row), where one would normally stop increasing the width for a regular-looking vest, I continued to add increases at the vest front (only faster, working them every-other row) until the desired back length was achieved. I wanted the front edges to drape into pointed ends sort of like the way the ends of a shawl drape. The final result came pretty close to what I was hoping for.