This has a bit of a story. To start with, I bought the yarn and cast on when I was still a new knitter and did not realize that acrylic doesn’t have the same properties as wool. The pattern was ridiculously complex for me - I think it would still be complex if I made it properly now but as a new knitter it was difficult beyond imagining. Yarn overs and twisted stitches and make1…oy! Plus, I had no clue what stitch markers were so I didn’t know that I could make my life easier by placing markers between the diamond pattern. I was constantly having to rip back whole rows to fix one tiny mistake. Plus, I had no idea how to “read” my knitting just be looking at it - it was still hard for me to tell a knit stitch from a purl one - so I never knew where my mistake was!

I somehow made it through the front and back and started on the belt and collar. That was when I realized - acrylic does not sit the same way as wool. This project was not going to wind up looking the way that it should, one of the first times I was willing to admit that about a project and stop making it before I wasted a ton of time trying to cause a result that would never happen. I put aside the pieces, meaning to frog it later, but later never came. This past spring, I gave the extra, unknit skeins of yarn to a local charity knitting group and then sat looking at the pieces I had completed. They were big and baggy and that was when I realized that it would probably make a perfect, comfy vest for my grandmother! Today I sat outside in the gorgeous fall sunlight and made it up. Now I’m all set for her Hanukah gift! I just know she’s going to love it, and I’m already so happy thinking about giving it to her.