Bob’s deluxe sweater vest (2018 FO-26)

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Bob's deluxe sweater vest (2018 FO-26)

I finished knitting Bob’s sweater vest in plenty of time for him to wear it out to dinner on New Year’s Eve, and the man could not be happier! Nor could I, honestly — this vest turned out so much better than I imagined. And that’s due to two things: a highly detailed pattern paired with some very nice yarn.

You may recall I had bought a skein of this at Stitches West last winter, and Bob basically picked it off my shelf one day and said “I want a sweater out of this.” It’s Plucky Knitter’s Yakpaca in “Pinstripe” — a 50/50 blend of yak and alpaca — and there’s no way he would wear a full sweater in such warm fibers, so thankfully what he wanted was a vest. And after poking around a bit, we settled on Churchmouse’s His Vest pattern.

My gauge was slightly bigger than the pattern gauge (I knitted the yarn on US6 needles at 4.75 sts/inch) and for such a straightforward garment, it would have been super simple to just wing it. But there were so many subtleties to how the pattern is written — very fine attention to the armhole shaping, shoulder seam placement, neck treatment — that I wanted to try to use the pattern. Since all my numbers were different, that got to be a bit of a headache (and I wound up not doing their tidy little neck selvage trick) but I’m glad I did it, and if I were to make this again, I would knit it precisely to the pattern.

Apart from the slight difference in gauge, the only change I made was to tweak the length — we wanted it to hit right at the front pockets of his jeans — and raised the neck, which meant going my own way on that whole part.

It’s a really lovely, simple garment, and a perfect case of how much yarn choice can matter. The fabric this yarn creates is so soft and elegant that I had this hanging on the door to my room for about 24 hours and I just kept staring at it having that “wow, I made that” feeling, even though it’s such a simple thing! It just looks so luxurious.

It was 70 degrees on New Year’s Eve and he wore it anyway, looking perfectly dapper. Sorry I didn’t get a photo!

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PREVIOUSLY in Finished Objects: Indigo mitts

23 thoughts on “Bob’s deluxe sweater vest (2018 FO-26)”

  3. That wow feeling doesn’t always happen but when it does it feels amazing. Beautiful knit vest.

    • I hadn’t felt it in awhile, or not quite in that way, so it’s funny to get it from something so simple.

  5. Beautiful vest! This must’ve been the year for vests for our guys – I made Bruce one in a handspun chocolate Romney wool and alpaca blend and am about to finish one in a handspun Shetland dyed with indigo. He’s well pleased with both!

  6. That is one beautiful vest! You both must be very proud. In a perfect world, I’d have you nearby so that when my gauge is not perfect and I want to alter a pattern, I could sit down with you and discuss how to ‘go my own way’ as you put it.

    • Honestly, if you knit the Sloper pattern, or even just study the posts about it, the numbers are different but the thought/process is the same.

  7. It makes me happy just looking at a picture of this vest – can’t even image how much I’d love looking at the real thing! Gorgeous.

  9. Whenever I make something that I’m just so proud of, I want to hang it on the wall like artwork and look at it all day long!

  10. My husband is wearing his vest I made him on his first day back at work today. He text me that he already got several compliments – I sign that I know he’s told everyone I made it for him. I love how particular the men are about what they want us to knit. Your vest turned out beautiful.

  13. 70F at New Year’s? I wish. Minus 13C here when I woke up this morning. No problem with wearing wool, though.

  18. Pingback: 2018 Yarn count - Fringe Association

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