Regardless, here we are, on the last Saturday before the vest is due with ONE WEEK ahead of us to complete this lovely little project so we can all wear them TO Easter the following weekend. I am SO pumped about this!
Before we get to that, though, can I just get a "What, whaaaaaat?" for Ghostface Knitter who ROCKED out a diagram for the bind offs, etc. last week in her blog post, appropriately titled: Now the Scary Shit Week! It was, wasn't it? This past week was the hardest we've had, IMO, since dropping those stitches was so important and doing it wrong could spell a minor upset. So kudo's to her!!! I hope you've all survived it and aren't closet alcoholics dealing with all those cables.
And speaking of cables... I counted roughly 760 cables on my sweater. Did you count yours? I want to know cuz that takes balls! Literally... 11 of them in my case. LOL. I'm so puny...
OK: Buttons. I love my buttons. I bought a bag of 50 antique-looking buttons from Amazon. There are 10 of each style and with the help of my friends on Instagram I chose these beauties:
I can't wait to sew these on because that means I'll be able to wear it since that's the last step for me. I prefer to block before I put on any final embellishments just to make sure everything lines up the way I want it to.
Hey, something shiny....
What? Nevermind.
Let's talk about picking up stitches. I think this is something that most knitters who are at that stage of knitting garments are capable of but I learned something really cool from Ann Berk (the queen of Annetarsia and all around loveable knitter... can you tell I adore her?) this past fall. When designers are developing patterns, generally they use a 2/3 or 3/4 pick up equation for picking up stitches.
Light. Bulb. (I hear Gru in my head when I type that - do you?)
So, for example, assuming a 2/3 pick up: if you have 10 rows and you have to pick up along the edge, you'd probably be told to pick up 7 stitches. How do I know that? Because 10 divided by 3 is 3 with 1 remainder. So then you multiply 2 stitches by 3 (because we're picking up 2 stitches for every 3 and we have 3 sets of 3 in 10) to get six. Plus you have one remaining stitch so you pick it up. 7!
No, I'm not drunk. It makes sense. I promise. I'm just perhaps bad at writing it out. Anyway, I did a video to show how I do things and I realize now that the focus point is on the pattern BEHIND my hands but hey... now you can hear what I sound like and giggle at my fidgety fingers. But, I did spend a whole 5 minutes making this and time is money so I can't just throw it away and do it over again. C'mon people... production value here. Also, can say "hole" enough times? Oh man... *face palm*
Ok, moving on.
There was a question this week from the lovely Kialtho (same user name on IG and Rav - and such a sweet woman) about binding off edges after discovering that her bind off in pattern was too stiff. I recommended she use Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off. After starting to bind off for the arm hole I found the same thing - my bind off was too tight and thus the binding was really stiff and unpleasant. So I used Jeny's method too and love it. I think it's kind of decorative, actually, and it has enough stretch to accommodate my comfort level.
**You'll notice a lovely array of colors for my vest in this post alone. I took these photos one right after another and STILL the colors are widely varied. And that's why I'm not a pro-photog. Visit Ewe Ewe Yarns for an accurate color swatch of Saffron 'cuz clearly I'm not going to get it for you.**
Here's how it looks when laid flat:
Looks pretty legit, right?
On to the neckline, which I briefly mentioned in the video above. I've learned that with knitting it's best to a) trust my gut and b) improvise where necessary. The pattern, for my size, called for me to pick up 125 stitches across the front right, across the back and ending at "the left front neck edge". Whelp... to me that wasn't 100% clear but I assumed I wasn't stopping at the shoulder seam since I can tell pretty clearly from the photos of the vest that it comes down the front of the vest a bit (the 3 rows of 1x1 ribbing that is). When I looked further in the pattern I saw that I will need to pick up the same number of stitches for the Button Band as I will for the Buttonhole Band so by means of deduction I presume that my neckline stitches would have to come down the front left of the vest as far as the front right of the vest. So I did some counting of cables and placed a marker.
Said marker was 12 stitches beyond where my pickup of 125 stitches was. At first I was nervous that it was "wrong" but I had to trust myself to know that it would be ok if there were some extra stitches. So my neckline has 137 stitches and they shouldn't impact anything except how much the ribbing is "stretched" for the neckline. I think it looks not too shabby. And now that I've had some time to think on it, it makes sense that I would need more stitches. My row gauge didn't match and I need more rows per inch to match the right length so yeah... that makes sense.
Now, just a note - I started to use Jeny's Suprisingly Stretchy Bind Off for the neckline but found it was a bit bulky so I ended up using the standard bind off in pattern. Go figure. Just goes to show that not every technique works every time, right?
Ok, now picking up the front panels. I had the same issue as above where I picked up more stitches than the patterned 83 (for my size). I actually needed 91which thankfully confirms my consistency - 91/83 and 137/125 (my actual stitch pick up over the patterned stitch pick up) both are the same: 1.096. I think I'm bragging now so I'll shut the hell up. Just sometimes I impress myself.
And then others... not so much.
Count those stitch markers... do you get 9? Yeah... me too...
But I didn't realize it until I'd done all the button holes.
A note on the button holes. I have 1" buttons as the pattern calls for and worked the 2-st, one-row button hole and found it too small. I went up to a 3-st, one row button hole and that seemed to work out. I don't know if I was super tense about working this type of button hole as it was new to me but hey, alls well that ends well, right?
So there she is, in her finished glory. Well, mostly finished. As I type this up she's sitting in the bath getting a good soak so I can block her and stitch on her buttons. All 9 of them. Actually, all said and done, I kind of dig the 9 since this is a rather snug little project and I don't want to have gaps. I have 10 stitches between each button and the math worked out pretty nicely.
And there ya have it. My work here is done. Later gators.
Kidding!
Let's talk about these prizes again, shall we?
First and foremost - your project must be done (buttons sewn on but not necessarily blocked or dry) by 11:59pm on Saturday, April 12th (one WEEK before easter, not the day before). To submit your finished entries please post your FO's either in the Ravelry Group or on Instagram using #heliopathkal. It would be most appreciated if you would also tag my co-host @ghostfaceknitter and me (@socalmeaghan) so we can be sure to get all of your entries.
A quick recap of what the prizes are:
4 skeins of Madelinetosh Pashmina from @justrunknit
2 skeins of Wooly Worsted in Saffron plus a pattern for a cowl from @eweeweyarns
1 skein of Black Market Wool in Just. Perfect. from @rijelviolet
A pattern of your choosing from the Ravelry Store of Miss Emma Welford (the lovely lady who brought us this gorgeous Heliopath Vest in the first place).
All of these prizes rock so make sure you get your entries submitted. I'm so pumped to see you all finish these up. And hey, if you don't finish by the deadline, keep tagging. I wanna see them all in their knitted glory!
Thank you all for knitting along, sharing your skills, posting on Instagram and cheering everyone along. It's been an absolute pleasure getting to know you all and I hope we'll all get the chance to knit together again soon. 'Cuz hey... prizes!
Happy weekend knitting all!
This turned out GORGEOUS! <3
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