My husband, Michael, loves hunting/work clothes. He has lived in Germany and is huge fan of Trachten wear. It has an interesting history.

He was looking for a hard wearing,good-looking vest. Functional and strong with clean and simple lines.

This pattern, is for a traditional Bavarian garment. It certainly fulfils the “simple” criterium. It is straight up and down garter stitch. Acres of the stuff. Detail is provided by the two bands of cable up the front of both sides.

Obtaining the pattern was an international/bilingual affair. I don’t speak German, in spite of a German born mother. However, the simplicity of the pattern, backed up with my mother, a German born woman, paying a translator to translate it. A non-knitter like she, so it required further translation.

I got there in the end.

I wanted a hard-wearing wool. I found Briar Patch’s Te Toko Station Perendale 8 ply on-line. When I asked if I could have a sample, I was unprepared for the wonderful stash of goodies that arrived in the mail.

Janette, from Briar Patch, sent two decent sized balls she had left over from a promo knit as well as some sample cards, post-cards, posters…. It was like bloody Christmas.

The wool reminds me, in a deliciously sensual and romantic way of Mithril… “the Dwarves could make of it a metal, light and yet harder than tempered steel. Its beauty was like to that of common silver, but the beauty of mithril did not tarnish or grow dim.”

The pattern called for 10ply with 3.5-4.5 needles being called for. Tension 17 stitches x 34 rows over 10cm. I needed 6mm needles to achieve this tension with the DK 8ply Perendale. The resultant texture, however, was not to my liking as it reduced the Mithral-like quality that so drew me to the project.

I wanted to encase my man in chain-mail!

I decided to knit the garment on 5mm needles and increase the number of stitches. To achieve the size required by my husband I worked out I needed to add 7 stitches, overall to the biggest size.

Fingers crossed.

Time to cast on and knit up!