Vest

This year I decided to make my husband a vest for Christmas.  Although he really likes wearing vests, I realized that he does not have a single knit vest and has been wearing fleece vests to work.  There is nothing wrong with fleece vests, but I think of them as being more casual than knit vests.  Besides, it gave me a good excuse to make something other than a hat.

I used the pattern "Peter Easy" that I found on Ravelry.  I was looking for something easy and I hoped the name was accurate!  The original pattern calls for Berroco merino yarn that is no longer available, so I had to find a substitute yarn to make this.  I decided to go with Patons worsted wool.  I like the fact that it is 100% wool and I hope it wears well without pilling too much.  Of course the size of the yarn is slightly different than that what the original pattern calls for.  It's a good thing I decided to make swatches!  The two orange swatches in this post were made for this vest.  The original pattern calls for size 9 needles, however I did not like the knit fabric that resulted.  Going down to size 8 gave a much nicer, denser fabric and hit the gauge nicely as well.

Speaking of gauge,  my gauge in the swatch and the vest are not exactly the same, but it is close enough that the finished garment is close to being the right size.  The important thing is that my husband likes it, it fits and he has already received compliments when he wore it to work:)

Overall, although some of the finishing looks a bit amateur, I am pleased with how the vest turned out.  I especially like the way the neck band looks - it was what worried me most about the pattern.

This is the first time for I did the following:

• picked up stitches around the neck
• made V-neck neck band
• seamed together a sweater

The seaming is a bit of a lie, I did once a long time ago finish a small sweater for a teddy bear which was seamed together.  This is the first time I seamed something that will actually get worn by a person though.  I hope it holds together well!