TIPS AND TRICKS

1. The instructions say to cast on with the purl color, then K2 knit color, P2 purl color. But that leaves a worse gap than usual joining in the round, so on Brae and this one I started with P2 so that the end joined the beginning better. (It’s not like ribbing below cables where you might be trying to get the knit columns to align. And yes, the joining gap goes away in a few rounds anyway, but still.)

2. Put the pattern colors in one smaller bag and the background colors in a second smaller bag inside the project bag. It’s very easy to distinguish them when they’re grouped this way, rather than all being loose in the project bag.

3. I find I do not have to do an exaggerated pull of just-worked stitches to get a good float length. My normal method of advancing stitches away from the needle tip is sufficient, and doing the exaggerated pull led to floats that were too long.

4. After I put the corrugated ribbing’s purl color to the back and work the knit stitches, the purl yarn sometimes gets caught in a little--or biggish--loop in it. So I try to remember to make sure there is no such loop before I do the next purl rib. UPDATE: It’s not whether the yarn is used for the knits or purls; it’s whether the yarn is the one carried high or low. The upper yarn is the one that tends to get caught in the floats of the lower yarn.

5. I haven’t the slightest idea why the book says to 3nbo the shoulders before opening the steeks, but never again. It made the job a bit harder than it had to be.

February 17, 2019

I’ve been pondering how I’m going to keep track of the blues, which are very close and so would be easy to mix up. I’m going to do my same trick as on Brae Cardigan, which is cutting off eight or ten inches of each color and taping it to the ball band.

But I think the main thing I’ll do is rewind to them to center-pull balls, then keep each ball with its band in a sandwich zipper baggie. I can pinch most of the opening closed, which will protect them and keep the ball band in the bag, then as I need each new color, I bring up the entire bag instead of just the ball, which is what I did on Brae.

I won’t need to do this on the black, white, light gray, the lighter blue-gray, and possibly the navy. But I may do them all just for consistency.

But I need to finish some socks before I start on this project. Plus, I joined the Palette co-op, and I can double-check all my blues with real yarn once I get my 1-gram sampler!!!!! Thanks, Becky6, for volunteering to do such a huge job!!!!

February 28, 2019

So last night I re-charted using the same technique as I use for Brae Cardigan, as there’s no possible way I could distinguish the ink colors in the book, especially at night.

I’ve decided to not wait on the Palette co-op after all, as looking at the yarns again to take pics, I saw that they seem to work well together. Nor do I think I need to do anything special to avoid mixing up the yarns. They’re different enough that that shouldn’t be a problem.

Pattern Colors:

• Black is Black, duh
• Very Dark Navy is Navy
• Dark Navy is Jay
• Medium Navy is Celestial
• Denim Blue Heather is Blue

Background Colors:

• Light Bright Turquoise is Cyan
• Medium Blue-Gray Heather is Ciel
• Light Blue-Gray Heather is Bluebell
• Light Gray is Mist
• White is White

I need to proofread the colors assigned to each row in the charts, at least for the shaded body ribbing, before I get started.

Since my bottom is bigger than my top, I’m going to CO the full number of chest stitches for the size medium to work the bottom ribbing, rather than following the pattern to CO about 7 percent fewer and do an increase round in the transition from the ribbing to the colorwork.

March 1, 2019

Finally casting on. I crochet CO everything, and I’m again using my E hook, which is what tend to use for fingering weight. It’s completely cylindrical except the the hook and thumb rest, and the non-business end fits in my 3.25mm needle gauge hole. The database listing for hook sizes calls that a D, but mine, a Boye, is labeled E.

I love my Stunning String Studio rainbow pack of 100 stitch markers. On Brae, which was mostly red and purple, I used white, blue, and green markers. On this one, which is all blues and black, I’ll be using yellow, pink, and orange.

I put a marker every 20 sts as I cast on, which also helps me as I set up the 2x2 ribbing. A red marker for the BOR, as a reminder to stop and adjust the row showing on the chart.

March 2, 2019

Winding the balls to center pull, because even bouncing around in a gallon zipper bag, the yarn is developing twists.

After searching the Stranded group for “knots,” I’ve decided on surgeon’s knots at the color changes instead of spit-splicing.

March 3, 2019

The rewound balls are twisting pretty badly, even pulling just one arm’s length out of the next new color. I think it’s because of how I rewound.

In the past when I’ve wound a ball, whether off my swift or from a commercially wound ball, I did a second rewind turning the handle in the opposite direction, so as to counteract the twisting imparted during the first winding. Then I read multiple posts that said no additional twist was added during winding. So when i rewind all the balls the second time, i turned the handle in the same direction as the first time (i rewound because even allowing the ball to jump around in a bowl, the tension was very uneven).

I’m about to start the last new color in the knit ribs, so I’ve rewound that color just once in the opposite direction. We’ll see how badly it twists as I pull it out. It may need a second rewinding in that same direction, sigh.

March 4, 2019

Even though the lighter colors are called the background colors, I’m working them so that their strands are below the pattern color strands, to help keep the vest overall lighter rather than darker.

I’m really pleased with the color combo and will upload a pic when I’ve completed the first row repeat of the colorwork.

March 6, 2019

I will do 6.25 repeats of the 28-row colorwork chart by the time I do a 3nbo on the shoulders.

Tonight I got through 1.25 repeats.

March 10, 2019

Cruising along, then I did a second checkerboard motif in a row during the third row repeat. Uh, no.

Since the stitch counts of each color are essentially the same in the two different motifs, i think I’ll be able to just drop down that section and redo. Worst case, I frog back, but I really would rather not, as its 4.5 rounds.

I can’t fix the bottomost row’s central stitch, so if it bothers me, I’ll just duplicate stitch. But there’s already another place where I know there’s one stitch I the wrong color, but no one but me could probably ever find it, and I’m certainly not going to fix it!

March 11, 2019

Yesterday I weighed the Bluebell. Only 18 grams left, so I ordered another ball today. Sigh.

I have six rows to go on the third row repeat, then I work another eight before starting the shaping. I expect the pace to pick up a bit because of the decreasing stitch count, which will be nice.

March 13, 2019

Got to the UA and neck shaping this morning. Weighed all the colors to see how much each part of the vest will take. I think I should have ordered another ball of Ciel when I ordered the extra Bluebell. Yarn chicken it is!

I’m going to do only eight stitches for the three steeks, as twelve seemed excessive once I got to the cutting stage on Brae. Maybe that will help with yarn chicken too.

March 14, 2019

No yarn chicken about it. I definitely won’t have enough of the Ciel. Argh!

March 24, 2019

Finished sixth row repeat, which also coincided with the end of the neck decreases.

Seven rounds to work even, then I do a 3nbo on the shoulders, then secure and open the steeks.

March 25, 2019

I have no idea why she says to join the shoulders with 3nbo before securing and opening the steeks. What a colossal PITA to do those steps in that order. Much better to open the steeks first, I think, though that would require BO the V-neck steek while working the half-round across the front.

Yesterday I cleaned up my knitting bookcase and found a printout from August 2006 (!) about hand-sewn steeks. I haven’t seen it since then, but it’s what I decided to do on my Brae, and it worked so well there that I did it here also. It’s going to be my go-to method. I was going to link the page, but it no longer exists (it was from Dawn Brocco’s Techniques page).

March 28, 2019

After doing absolutely nothing but lying on the couch yesterday with a sinus thing that has maybe now become bronchitis, I very gingerly knitted up around one armhole and completed the ribbing. Looks really good. I repeated my trick from Brae of setting up P3 ribs at specific spots so that I can P2tog, P1 about halfway through to draw in the ribbing, since corrugated doesn’t snap back on its own.

I was also able to knit up around the neckline and get about halfway through. I put P3 across the entire back neck and for the first purl ribs on the fronts. Should finish the neckline tomorrow, but I think I’ll deal with all the ends before working the second armhole, which is the side seam and steek where I changed colors. That’ll be a lot of fun.

April 1, 2019

I’ve knotted and woven in the ends up nearly all of the left “side” seam, and I really regret going for “traditional” instead of “common sense.”

All the pattern colors (the black and blues) are so close to one another that they could have been spit-spliced without any issue. And that’s regular spit-splicing, not the kind where you loop the two yarns and SS each one to itself. For the background colors, three of the five are close enough that, again, regular SS would have been fine. Only the Ciel and Cyan are different enough that they would have needed either traditional weaving in or else the fancier looped SS.