Dad’s vest was finished in time for his birthday today, but unfortunately he’s not in possession of it at the moment…

Conservative (but pretty!) Vest (rav link) by Julia Trice
9 balls of Lincraft Balmoral Tweed
3.50 and 4.00 mm needles
Start: April 2009
Finish: May 2009
Ravelryed here

It was a rush at the end, but thought two days was plenty of time for it to dry on the blocking mat, to be sent on Thursday. It was dry on Friday, three days after I put it out to block. True, I could sped up the process, but silly me took for granted that it wouldn’t take that long to dry and only realised it was still wet as I went to fold it up and send it off.

Measuring it against ‘the template’, it looks like a pretty close match. As it’s a firmer fabric, with less give than ‘the template’, I’ll reserve my full judgement on the project until I see Dad in it. If I can nab a photo of him modelling it, I’ll post it here.

Although the length and width of the vest is heavily based on ‘the template’, the pattern I used in conjunction was very helpful in terms of shaping. I owe the designer, Julia of Mind of Winter, a great deal of gratitude for her help and patience when I got myself completely confused and in a knot about the shoulder decreases. Turns out I had them reversed on the back, creating an overhang at the armhole side. Instead of doing the sensible thing and trying to work it out when I wasn’t so tired, I got in contact with her to see if I had made a silly mistake that everyone bar me could see. Turns out, I had, and she was just lovely when I explained what a fool I had been.

The whole vest took around 450 grams of Lincraft Balmoral Tweed. I must admit to having a bit of a mental block about Lincraft branded yarn, but I found this yarn fine to work with. The occasional slub added to the tweediness and it bloomed beautifully with a wet blocking. It is a discontinued yarn, which is a shame as I have a couple of projects in mind that would have been great in Balmoral Tweed.

One of the many wonderful things about Ravelry is that you can see what other people think about patterns in books you’re thinking about buying. Nonetheless, I still think there is a place for knitting book reviews.

A little while ago I picked up this book: A Stitch In Time – Vintage Knitting and Crochet Patterns 1920-1949: vol.1 by Jane Waller and Susan Crawford. The knitting patterns I like the most are from the 40s to the 70s, but after seeing some of the patterns on Ravelry, I thought it a good idea to obtain a copy, pronto. I wasn’t disappointed.

While the patterns are the major drawcard of this book, the little details are just lovely. The major title, A Stitch In Time, is embossed in gold. A little thank you card was placed inside the front cover, the pattern names are exactly the same as the original pattern, and the original patterns are included alongside its modernised counterpart. One thing I did find surprising was the paper used – it’s quite thin, thinner than other knitting books I own. That’s not necessarily a criticism; given that the book’s over 300 pages long, heavier paper would have made it quite the tome. I will have to be super duper careful to not damage the pages though.

The patterns themselves are good mix, broken into several sections – The Tubular Look (1920-1932), The Feminine Look (1933-1935), The Fitted, Tailored Look (1935-37), Smart Suits and Puffed Sleeves (1937-40) and The Square Look (1940-1949). The designs from the earlier chapters generally do not suit my body shape or are not to my taste, but there are many patterns in the later chapters that I’d like to knit for myself.

I haven’t tried to knit anything out of this book so I can’t comment on that aspect. I do have yarn stashed away that I think would look lovely as a Bluebird Sweater (pic above). What I like the most is the concept – bridging the gap between vintage and modern yarns and patterns. I think working with vintage patterns, while lovely garments, is more of a hassle than modern patterns. With the exception of mainstays like Patons Bluebell, you have to find a suitable substitute yarn, sizing is generally limited, and vintage patterns seem to assume a lot more knowledge than most modern patterns.

I’m really looking forward to volume 2.

Based on recent posts, it might seem that knitting has become a long forgotten pastime of mine. Rest assured that I have been knitting, every day in fact, but a strange aversion to taking photos of works in progress prevented any of that knitting seeing the light of day. High time I got over that, I think.

Dad’s vest seems to be well on track to be finished by the end of the month. The back is finished and I’m just about to split for the v neck, so I regard that as being well on the downhill run. The front’s pictured on top of one of his vests, which I’m using as a template along with a pattern. It seems to be a pretty close match to the template vest at this stage, which is quite a relief.

While mindlessly knitting stockinette day in day out, I’ve been thinking about the next project. My cardigan still needs to be seamed up, so that’ll be done first, but I’m really itching to do something else. That’s a post in itself though.

A little while ago, I posted about a book with some missing pages. A lovely offer came my way as a result of that post, and now I know what those missing pages contained.

I had an inkling that it was the instructions for feather stitch lace rib, shower stitch, leaf stitch and pyramid stitch, and I was right. It’s always nice to have a collection of different stitches up your sleeve, you never know when they might come in handy.

Thank you so much Susan for solving that mystery for me!

The four days off at Easter makes this place a hive of productivity. It’s not stressful like the Christmas holidays are and the weather is much more conducive to productive work. This Easter, I was determined to finish off all the major knitting for my Tyrolean Cardigan. Good Friday I sat down and knit and knit and knit and knit and faffed on Ravelry and then knit some more. Finally, yesterday afternoon, the second sleeve was cast off, folded it up and put it with the pile of Tyrolean Cardigan parts ready for blocking. At this point, I was feeling rather chuffed that I had finished something within the completely non-binding non-verballised timeframe.

Then I blocked it and marvelled at how nicely the stitches had settled the pieces were pinned out. It was then that something seemed amiss with the front pieces. No amount of pushing and pulling would make them look like mirror images of one another. Turns out one is 5 rows shorter than the other.

Normally I’d try to fudge it and hope that it’d look alright once it was seamed up, but it doesn’t seem possible in this instance because the bobbles draw too much attention to the discrepancy. Luckily my dufferism only occurred at the cast off and decreases for the neckline, so it shouldn’t take too long to fix. To be honest, I’m not sure how I managed to muck it up like that, but by golly it’s a good lesson in carefully checking over measurements before gleefully casting off and loudly proclaiming ‘Finished!’.

I finished embroidering my little Dutch girl last weekend. She’s a bit wonky in places, but I don’t mind. It was my first attempt at embroidery and I’m pleased I stuck with it to completion.

I have another tea towel sitting on my desk, ready to embroider. The set that the Dutch girl is from, Loopsies’ Pretty Maids set 1, also has sweet girls from Bavaria, Russia, Poland and France. I can’t decide which one to choose next!

In other news, my partner had an iPhone/iPod touch program released in the iTunes app store this week. I was very hesitant to mention it here, and to’d and fro’d about whether I should say something. Ultimately, I’m very proud of him and the program he’s created and released, so I shouldn’t be embarrassed to say something on my blog, my personal space. It’s a program I’ve helped with from the word go, and I’ve been using for my knitting projects since December. So, if you are a knitter and an iPhone/iPod touch owner and are looking for a row counter, please consider Knit Counter or its free counterpart, Knit Counter Lite (both links to iTunes).

In both versions, you can have as many counters as you like, link counters together (good for if you’re knitting something with pattern repeats) and put in increase/decrease alerts for projects where you have to increase or decrease periodically (eg. if you’re knitting sleeves). You can have as many projects as you like for Knit Counter, and just a single project for Knit Counter Lite.

I’ve ended up rabbiting (excuse the pun, with Easter and all…) on a lot more than I intended to about the program. Full details can be found on his site, or on iTunes.

There’s still a long way to go, but I feel a lot better since destashing never-to-be-used yarn and ripping out never-to-be-finished projects. It’s so easy to stop once you get that initial sense of achievement, but I have to make sure I stick with it. To that end, for every new knitting project I start and finish, an old one needs to be finished up. This is to make sure there’s a bit of variety in my knitting diet, but also to make sure I keep clearing out stash and unfinished projects.

My new project is a vest for my Dad’s birthday.

I borrowed one of his vests for measurements and am using this pattern (rav link) as a guide. The pattern uses a 5 ply yarn whereas I’m using a 10 ply (stashed Lincraft Balmoral Tweed). The miles and miles of stocking makes for good tv or conversation knitting, as it requires minimal concentration.

I’m not sure if it’s the right motivation, but being able to chew through stash yarn is really making me want to motor through this project. If this enthusiasm keeps up, it should be finished in plenty of time for Dad’s birthday at the end of next month.

Writing an intro for a finished project is always nice, but my words feel clumsy today so it’s straight to the photo.

Cropped Tryst Vest by Kristen TenDyke
1.75 balls of Bendigo Woollen Mills Rustic 12 ply, Elm
4.50 and 5.00 mm needles
Start: January 2009
Finish: March 2009

I feel funny calling it Tryst Cropped Vest, because out of those three words, only ‘vest’ is still valid. I thought elm would be a nice colour for the vest, so I was going to make Rustic 12 ply work, but hook or by crook. Luckily, I got gauge straight away. Twelve ply is a lot bulkier than what I normally work with, but it’ll be good for the cooler months.

The vest was also lengthened so it ended at the hip rather than at the ribs. There is some shaping in the cropped version, so I mirrored that shaping in the rib to hip section. With the lengthening, there’s now eight buttonholes rather than four.

The only thing I’m a bit funny about is the buttons. The buttons used are the best ones I’ve found so far, and happily are ones I had stashed away after a buttonmania button sale frenzy a few years ago. However, I just don’t know if they look right.

The vest is my most heavily modified knit to date, and I’m pretty happy with the results. It’s entirely wearable, and it’s given me more confidence to modify other patterns. Look out hefty stash of vintage leaflets.

…for I found a pair of knitting needles that match my bike.

Little by little, my life is becoming complete.

A little while ago, I was lamenting the absence of a couple of pages from a vintage knitting book. Ali kindly pointed me in the direction of the National Library of Australia, which had a listing for the book. Alas, when I had a look for those missing pages, I found it wasn’t the same book! It was by the same authors, but with even more lovely patterns and without a section on how to modify garments. Armed with the knowledge that there was another knitting book by Margaret Murray and Jane Koster out there, I trawled eBay and won an auction for it… so I thought.

It arrived today, and is every bit as charming as the book I picked up last month. The cover looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t remember exactly if it was the same as the one I saw at NLA. Then I opened the book and looked inside the front cover.

The NLA copy has a fabulous repeated graphic featuring the words ‘knit one, purl one’, whereas my copy has just as sweet drawings of garments, yarn and knitting needles. I flicked through the pages, and found lovely illustrations, and hilarious patterns. Never mind, I thought, it might just be a different print run.

However, it contained none of the patterns I remember from the NLA copy! So now I have two pattern books that I love, but am still looking for two missing pages, and a copy of ‘Knitting illustrated : easy-to-follow instructions for knitting practical garments to suit all members of the family’. I’m not really sure what made me think that ‘Complete home knitting illustrated’ was the same as ‘Knitting illustrated…’, but I don’t mind at all. I’m starting to build a nice collection (two Murray/Koster books makes a collection, right?), and I know there’s at least one more book out there for me to hunt for.

In other news, it’s almost agricultural show time round here, and I know a few people who have entered some lovely projects. I’m really looking forward to seeing them on display, and hopefully with some ribbons beside them!