Lots to catch up on

My friendly local knitting group (we haven't really seemed to come up with a name for ourselves) has decided to do a Vest Knitting Challenge. The idea came about in part because several of us have made the Swallowtail Shawl from Interweave Knits Spring (or was it summer?) 2006 issue, and it's wonderful to see how different each person's interpretation of it has been. We decided to do vests rather than another shawl. As we've got a variety of levels of knitting experience within the group we decided to let each person choose their own pattern, keeping the idea of the vest as the common thread, rather than having us all work on the same pattern.

I'm always looking for things to make for my mom, and as she/I had a number of skeins of teal/sea foam green yarns in a variety of shades, fibres, and weights (none of which was enough by itself to make anything significant with) I thought that would be a great starting point. On one of my visits with her we went to the LYS in her area and found some Berocco Touche (50% cotton/50% rayon) in a perfect shade of grey-beige to set off the green colours. here's my swatch, which used all the choices of yarns (some of which I chose not to use in the final design).


She really liked the Dineh Vest from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Vests from Interweave Press (Interweave features in my blogging a lot, I've noticed). As seen in the photo from the book it's designed for two shades of red with an accent of light blue. I'm using the grey-beige as a background, and choosing the brightest of the greens I have (which is also the smallest ball) to be the bright accent colour. The remaining darker teals will be mixed up amongst the darker red stripes/patterns.

It's knit with the rows running from shoulder to hem rather than side to side to make the stripes simple. I will leave the bands until after the vest is done; the pattern uses garter stitch bands but I want to see what the vest looks like once done before I decide (with Mom's input) what they should look like.


On a totally un-knitting related project, I've been doing a lot of sewing for my upcoming vacation. I'm turning 50 this year, and am planning a long road trip to Wyoming and Yellowstone Park with my sweetheart to celebrate not only my birthday, but also our 10 years together. The most creative project out of the bunch of sewing is a little purse; something not as formal as my workweek backpack purse, but still big enough for my wallet, glasses, and camera. I used a variety of linen fabrics in a design I made up myself (and will probably never be able to be recreated!) and added a decorative deer-antler button on the flap. I love it.