Deep V Argyle Vest - done!

All I can say is that it is about time my Deep V Argyle Vest was finished. Sheesh. It has been folded up on my coffee table since the middle of December with nothing but the steeks left to tack down. The thought that it would really only take me another couple hours to finish and that this cold snap wouldn’t last in San Diego forever, finally got it done.

In the end this vest consumed 5 1/3 balls of Jo Sharp DK wool in Scarlet and 3 3/4 balls in Linen. I figure there is probably enough left over for some two color hand warmers…maybe. And again, I want to take the time to mention how much fun the knitting of vest was. Eunny wrote a great pattern and was easy to follow and included lots of good instructions and tips. I feel very confident that I could have made this without the class, but the class, well, it was a really great time. Not only did we learn a ton, we had so much fun!
(I swear I was more happy than I look when I took the top photo.)

Now, for the most part, I knit this project as written by knitting a larger size to accommodate my tighter stitch gauge. I knit the 38, which resulted in pretty much the dimensions for the 34. Additionally, since my row gauge wasn’t proportionally different with my stitch gauge, I got a longer vest. This worked out pretty good, because I was going to have to lengthen it anyway since I’m long. Unfortunately, my row gauge wasn’t very consistent with my swatch so I ended up with a vest about an inch longer than what I was aiming for. If I had it to do all over again, I would have taken out more width from the arms and adjusted the decreases on the top so I could stop the vest sooner, yet still have the shaping work out.

After it is all said and done, I am pleasantly surprised that the vest is wearable. After trying it on after finishing the arm bands, I didn’t have much hope that top of the vest would fit - at all. It is still a little wide, but after the steeks were steamed down and tacked down, it is actually wearable. It is certainly not snug, but it is really only fidgety when I have my bag slung over my shoulder. Just walking and sitting it stays pretty much where it is supposed to. I may still cut off the bottom sometime in the future (I figure this will allow me to pull down the whole thing for a better fit), but for now, I’m done and happy.