12-05-2026

I started swatching last night and I think I’m going to go with the Bendigo Luxury held with the Lilt on 4mm needles. I knitted half the swatch on 3.75mm (as recommended) and half on the 4mm. I very rarely get gauge on the recommended sized needles and seem to consistently need to go up a size, even when I use the recommended yarn.

My one concern is that the fabric is quite drapey and I’m wondering if a design like this would work better if the fabric is more dense.

Swatch is drying and I hope to cast on later this week. I’m a little concerned about the deadline but fingers crossed I can get enough of it done to at least provide useful feedback for the test.

13-05-2026

I felt the fabric was too light to really suit this vest so raced into Morris and sons at lunchtime yesterday and picked up some 8ply. Swatched last night and I think I’m much closer to what I need. Swatch is drying now and I think I’ll cast on tonight.

14-05-2026

Cast on last night. A very enjoyable pattern so far, that is really fun to knit. I can already tell that “Just one more row” is going to be my project catchphrase for this one!

17-05-2026

I have completed the front and back ribs and joined them, so I’m now working around. It’s going to be oversize, because my gauge was off but I’m ok with that. It also means I will be able to complete it with less knitting, which is good because I’m also on a deadline for the Noosa cardigan and want to complete them both before the end of June.

I messed up in the back rib section (I did too few rows between some of the cables). I’m not going to rip back because I doubt anyone but me will notice. I also realised I’d purled one of my knits (or knit one of my purls) on one of the rib edges on the back, but again, I doubt anyone but me will notice.

Both of these mistakes have nothing to do with the pattern which has been easy enough for me to follow, even given my limited modern knitting experience.

20-05-2026

I’ve completed one full repeat of the main chart for the body and I think I need to complete one more before I separate for armholes.

02-06-2026

I had completed the back when someone in the test group shared that they had misread the chart and missed the instruction telling you to only knit rows 1-6 once then continue to repeat rows 7-24 until you reach the desired length. It was only then I realised I had done the same thing!

Fortunately Vera said it was OK to continue (it would have been very sad to rip it all back) but just to make a note of it here.

I completed the fronts and then yesterday picked up my neckband and had cast it off before I realised I’d done that wrong, too! The instructions are clear that you need to work the chart left to right when working in the round and right to left when working flat. Even though I had worked in the round correctly while doing the first part of the body I had forgotten all about the fact it was different and just continued as if working flat while doing the neckband. The result was the cables were backwards.

I put it aside for a day because I couldn’t face undoing it straight awa and worked the first armband without any problems.

One thing I did do differently to the pattern was make my back (and then subsequently the fronts) shorter than the instructions for size 3 (21cm rather than 23cm), because while my bust measurement was right for the third size I am short, so I wanted to make the garment shorter. That meant I wanted to pick up fewer stitches when doing the side of the armbands, so I did 45 on each side rather than 47. I still picked up 18 stitches in the underarm section, for a total of 108 stitches.

I hope to be finished with the knitting of this by the end of the week.

04-06-2026

I finished the knitting of the garment at lunchtime today and wove in the ends. I was really hoping not to break into the 10th ball of yarn but in the end needed just 4 grams to complete the project! Very annoying.

I’m now blocking the garment and will take photos once it is dry.

06-06-2026

A note about gauge: I did knit a swatch before starting this project and measured it as being very close to that stipulated in the pattern. However, the gauge I’ve given above (which is quite different to what I measured on my original swatch) is what I observed in the finished garment. A lesson to me to knit better swatches in future! Fortunately, I’m still happy with the fit!