FO: Nosegay Vest (My First Intarsia Project)

Today I have an exciting project to show you that ticks all kinds of "proud knitter" boxes. This is my first time doing any kind of color work whatsoever (and it's intarsia), my first vest, and a successful trial at major problem solving in my knitting. So sit back and get ready for an interesting tale :)

This is the Nosegay Vest pattern by Andi Satterlund which was was released just a few months ago in her Quiet Days collection she designed for Knit Picks. I loved the designs straight off so I bought the ebook and  I made the Sunshower Cardigan from the collection first for the Outfit Along. I had no immediate plans to make more from the ebook, but when Andi announced that she'd be hosting a knit along for this pattern in August I decided to go ahead and give it a go since I liked the pattern and really when else would I decide to make a sweater vest? I'm a big believer in Knit Alongs - they are a fun way to socialize and have a cute project to show at the end. I look at them as online knitting circles. This one came at just the right time - I had just finished the big project of the Outfit Along, and wanted to keep the momentum going. Anyway, all that to say that I joined the knit along, lol.

The big deciding factor on joining this knit along was if I had appropriate yarn in my stash already. As lovely as Knit Picks yarn is, I am on a tight budget now and I have a ridiculous amount of yarn so I am trying to work as much from my stash as possible. I had almost the exact colors for the rose in various wool yarns leftover from other projects (the pinks and yellow are Cascade 220 Superwash and the green is Lion Brand Wool-Ease), so the big issue became the main body color. The only wool yarn I had of the right weight that would be a good background color was some I Love This Wool from Hobby Lobby in the Winter White colorway. I had two skeins, which wasn't quite enough but I thought, "No worries, I can justify buying one more skein for a few bucks," only go to the store and find that the yarn has been discontinued! They have replaced it with a wool blend now, but the yarn is a different ply and slightly darker color. I went back to my stash and had just one skein of Patons Classic Wool Worsted in the Aran colorway that was another cream color and at first glance looked like it would work. The only problem is that not only was is a slightly different color, it has a different twist too. The Patons is more rough, and the plies are more pronounced than the I Love This Wool. I was going to have to alternate skeins on the I Love This Wool already since they were different dye lots, so I decided to try alternating the skein of Patons too and seeing how it worked out. I ended up with a very subtle stripe pattern that I think almost gives a kettle dyed look. I was hesitant at first, but a friend of mine saw me working on it at church and complimented this "technique" with no previous explanation as to my reasons for doing it, so I took that as a good sign and went with it. The colors are all so close that it really does look deliberate and like a design choice, so I'm happy that I didn't throw in the towel at the beginning.

Now for the big drama of this project - I mentioned what had happened here a bit, but here's a photo. I had deliberately only worked on the front of the vest on nights when I stayed home (not only was it a crazy tangle of yarn skeins, but I wanted to give the color work my undivided attention). After a few nights on the rose, I finally got it finished and I was elated with my progress. I posted about it on Instagram to brag about my multi colored knitting, then kept knitting from the point I left off in the pattern. I got to the point you see above on the left and knew something wasn't right. I had only just done the armhole bind off and the example photo had the rose just below the neckline - what I had knitted would've put the rose directly over/in the middle of my boobs, which I knew would look awkward. So I stopped and tried to figure out what happened. Having never read an intarsia pattern before, I didn't notice that the following paragraph of instructions was supposed to be worked at the same time as the color chart. I thought that you worked the chart, then worked the next set of instructions. When I figured it out, I was pretty upset and didn't know if I could save this project. The bind off for the arm holes was supposed to happen about 1/3 up the flower design. I had already clipped my ends and I really didn't want to rip out a week of work since I didn't even know if I would be able to figure out my place again once I ripped back. The project was already almost a wash, so I decided to try and put my problem solving skills to work. I had watched the Save Our Stitches class on Craftsy a long time ago and it taught me how to drop down to fix a problem several rows below without scrapping the entire work. Could I apply the same idea to change the sides and add a bind off and shaping? I decided it was worth a try, and I devoted two nights to just fixing this issue. It was not a pretty process. The photo above on the right was when I first started dropping down, but it got so much messier than that. It was pretty confusing to make sure I did everything where it should've been done originally, but I got there in the end.

After my fixing, this is what my front piece looked like. The fact that this project is seamed together was it's only saving grace. Since I essentially had to remove big rectangles of stitches from each side, I wound up with really long loops of excess yarn. The edges of the shaping I added looked like a hot mess, but I was hoping that I could fudge it when I weaved the ends in after adding the arm bands. I looked at this all as a big gamble, but I figured it would at least be wearable which two days before I almost lost hope of. I kept on knitting, and I was actually able to make it work :) Moral of the story - use your brain and good things come of it, lol. At the very least, this was a big mistake fixing confidence builder, and I know I won't be quite so worried about issues in the future now.

The other issue I had with the sweater was a bad call on my part. I technically need two sizes merged in Andi's patterns, and I know this because I've made 5.5 of her sweater patterns now. I use the size large shoulders, bust, sleeves, etc but I merge up to the size extra large waist. This vest is designed to be worn with 0-2" positive ease so it fits comfortably on top of a blouse or dress, so I went up a size overall to the extra large but still went up an additional size for the waist. It fits well in the top portion, but it's definitely a bit large in the waist. I tried to make sure I didn't stretch it out width-wise while blocking, but it still didn't help. The waist looks ok, but I wish I had gone smaller to give me a little bit of visual waist definition (even if my actual waist isn't very defined). Also, since I didn't really know how to read the pattern, and since the pattern was worked form the bottom up, this baby ended up really short on me. I do have a long torso, but I didn't know where the flower started compared to my size since no one had made this pattern before (meaning there are no exampled to view on Ravelry). The vest is supposed to sit at your natural waist, but on me is came out just below the my boobs. This thing looked like  a strange knitted bra top before I blocked it, lol. I could get a decent stretch just when i twas dry, so I decided to stretch it as much as possible while wet blocking. I managed to get an additional 2 inches out of the length so it at least looks reasonable on me now. Also, it's a total side thing since obviously the model in the photos is quite a bit smaller than me, but I'm really surprised at the proportion difference as the size goes up. The flower is the same size regardless, but on the model (and on some of the other smaller gals who knitted this at the same time as me) the flower fills the entire width of the bust line. I don't think it looks too small on me or anything, but it definitely gives away that there is a decided size difference. Good thing I won't be standing next to any of the size 2 ladies wearing the same project, lol.

Anyway, here's a mannequin shot and you can really see how loose the waist is. You can also see that I kept up with my alternating skeins of the background color even on the neck and arm bands and I'm really happy with the continuity (again, I think it helps look like a kettle dyed yarn). Isn't it crazy how much lighter just one skein was than the others?! And that was one of the two skeins that were the same yarn.

And here are the crazy insides, lol. Normally I'm a huge stickler for hiding all my ends inside since I'm worried about it unraveling or tickling me while I wear it. Knowing this would literally never be worn against my skin, I just didn't care. It felt like I weaved in 100 ends with all that color work, but it really did help to make the tension more even and close up any little holes in the color changes. I left the tails hanging out of the back of the work about 1/2" just to make sure they wouldn't pull through to the front as it's worn and I used fray check on everything. At the arm holes, I did the same thing. I did weave in the ends along the seam between the band and the body, but I left them hanging out after that just so it didn't feel brick hard from all the layers of yarn. I made sure the ends were short enough that they will not hang out when the vest is worn, and called it a day :) In all honesty, I kind of amazed myself that the inside even looks this good, lol. No one will ever know but me when I wear it, so it's like all that drama never happened.

Realistically, this piece does have its flaws, but no non-knitter will ever be able to tell. I think I like this project better just from all the grief it gave me, and I will be reminded of my improved problem solving every time I wear it. Let's be real here, I live in Florida ... we have very few wool-sweater-vest-wearing days here, so this will not likely be worn all that much. At least I learned a ton, put some stash yarn to use, and got to participate in a fun knit along :)


Summary:
Yarn: 1.5 skeins of I Love This Yarn in Winter White - $5.75; 0.62 skeins Patons Classic Wool Worsted in Aran - $3.25; small lengths of Cascade 220 Superwash in Salmon, Strawberry Pink, and Daffodil - $1.00; small length of Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Avocado - $0.25
Pattern: Nosegay Vest by Andi Satterlund - $2.00
Time: 3 weeks
Total Cost: $12.25

WIP Wednesday: Everything's Coming Up Roses

This project has absolutely fought me ever step of the way. I'm participating in the Nosegay Vest Knit Along and using it as my first intarsia project. I have to show how it looks now only to say that you wouldn't believe how it looked last night in comparison.

I finished the colorwork section on Sunday night and I was elated - it was quite the process and took me several hours to do, so when I reached the end I triumphantly posted it to instagram. Then I kept knitting and things started to look ... weird... The photo on the pattern showed very minimal space between the flower and the neckline, but suddenly mine had several inches of the main color in between. I started reading and re-reading the pattern, only to have it finally click that I was supposed to do the armhole bind off and shaping about 1/3rd into the color work - not after it. I was so depressed! The instructions are very minimal since the pattern was released through Knit Picks instead of by Andi herself (who always includes lost and lots of information - most of her patterns are at least 6 to 8 pages long), and it had to fit into the Knit Picks format - this pattern is only 3 pages long, one of which is the measurements and 3/4 of another is the color chart. So basically all the instructions are on one page. Now that I read it again, I see where I messed up, but I still feel like it was a reasonable mistake considering I've never done color work before and I've never made a vest so I'm not totally sure of their construction.

Anyway, this major error meant that I had to figure out how to fix it. Not only did I not want to pull out all that intarsia work, I was also pretty sure that I wouldn't be able to. It was a mess on the back with all my stranding, and I had already cut the excess yarn off. Instead I decided to put my Craftsy class  to good use and try dropping down to where the shaping needed to be and adding in the shaping. My nice edges quickly went from neat and tidy to a stringy mess, but after a few hours of work and lots of tugging at the long strands, I ended up with the fairly decent looking front that you see above. If this vest wasn't designed to be seamed together, this would not have been possible, but since it is I am fairly confident that I will be able to hide all that mess and end up with something at least wearable.

So here's a little trip down memory lane. This was when I first started the color. I had just discovered how to make butterflies of yarn so I didn't have a zillion skeins all twisted up, and things still looked nice and tidy.

Soon after, I ended up with this crazed mess, lol. I can't tell you how many times I had to untangle all this hullabaloo. But I endured, and ended up with this:

This was the picture I posted on Instagram before I discovered my mistake. At first I was very nervous about how much stranding I had to do. The Craftsy Intarsia class tells you not to strand but to make a separate butterfly of yarn for each section of color - I quickly realized this really was not possible for this design. I asked Andi how many balls of color she had used, and she wrote a whole blog post to answer my question! I thought that was so nice of her. She shows a photo of the back of her swatch in the post and I have to say it made me feel so much better about my own work. She had lots of stranding - granted it was quite a bit neater than my own, but once I get my ends woven in I'm sure it will be much better. 

So now my flower looks like this. I will say I did pull my changes a little too tight in a few places, but I'm hoping I can try to loosen things up as I weave in. I find that if I stretch the whole vest vertically, the stitches even out much better. This is good news since my issue now is that it's going to be pretty short. Ah well, at least it's supposed to go over something else when worn so I think it will still be ok, but you can bet I will be stretching this baby to the max when I block it.

So that's really been my whole focus craft-wise this week, which feels like total slacking compared to all the sewing projects I've posted the last little while. This has been quite a lot of work though! So if you'd like to get your fill of other people's projects, head over to Gracey's Goodies and check things out!

WIP Wednesday: It's All Happening!

Hello, All! It's been a pretty momentous week around these parts because ...

I finished knitting my Emelie cardigan! It's a miracle! To be real, I do still need to re-knit the bind off on the button band, but still - the main knitting is done and I'm so excited. I started this project last August (ugh!), so this has been a much anticipated sweater. This is my first fingering weight sweater, and I learned quite a bit in the process.

I included a more lightened version of the photo just so you can see what I mean. It's not awful, but the button band bind off just doesn't stretch quite enough, so I'm going to take it out and redo it. I'm not looking forward to this, lol, but after a year of work I'd rather not think I wish I had done something to fix it while I wear it. I'm hoping to buckle down and get this done this next week so I can get it finished before the one year mark (August 17th). We'll see ...

Also I completely lost steam on my project for the Ami-Along. It's really cute! I just lost all desire to crochet for some reason. He just needs to be sewn together and get ears and he's done, so this is seriously a half hour away from completion. Hopefully I feel up to it soon so he doesn't remain headless, lol.

 I also cast on a new project (I'm in a very "plan future projects" mood lately). This is the Nosegay Vest by Andi Satterlund, and I'm joining in the knit-along for this one. I loved this design when it was released, so when Andi announced the knit-along I decided it was a good opportunity to get this made up. This project will be a few firsts for me - it's my first vest and it's also my first colorwork. I've watched the Intarsia class on Craftsy, but I've still never officially used the technique, so I figured I would just go whole hog and have this be my first project. Another factor in making this vest is that I'm actually able to make it entirely out of stash yarn - yay! The color section on the rose will use Cascade 220 Superwash (in Strawberry Pink, Daffodil, and Salmon) and Lion Brand Wool-Ease (in Avocado). The body is where I ran into a smidge of a snag. I had two skeins of I Love This Wool yarn in Winter White from Hobby Lobby that I've acquired over the years - the two skeins are different dye lots, but close - the problem is that the vest requires a bit more yarn than just those two skeins. I went to Hobby Lobby to get one more skein ... only to discover that they have discontinued this yarn! They had other colors in the sale section, but none that I could use.

. 

So I returned to my stash and dug out all my skeins of white/natural colored wool to compare. The closest color I had was a skein of Patons Classic Worsted Wool in Aran, and I decided to just go with it and alternate skeins every two rows. This complicated my yarn pulling arrangement to be sure, but it's manageable as long as I stay on top of things. Now I'm just trying to decide if I like how the vest is looking. It's not just the color - the yarns are different plys, so it's coming out like a subtle stripe in the fabric. I included a blown up photo to show what I mean. I've only knitted the bottom ribbing so far, so I'm going to go a bit further into the stockinette section before I make my official Yay of Nay decision. I want to see if the stripe gives a "kettle dyed" look, or just looks silly, you know? Wish me luck!

On the sewing front, I've been very busy but with not much to show for it. I've had McCall's 6503 on my list for years - I really want to make view D in a navy blue cotton. I already have everything I need for the official dress in my stash. I made my first muslin in the size that I usually do for Simplicity patterns about a month or two ago and it was enormous (this is my first time with a McCall's pattern). I was frustrated back then, so I just kind of chucked the muslin aside and went on to the next project. I decided to try again in a smaller size this past week, so I checked the finished garment measurements before cutting and put together a smaller size. It came out too small! RRrrrrr.... I voiced my frustration on Instagram, and a few very kind sewing bloggers tried to help me out (thanks Gillian and Brooke!), sadly I was so not in the mood to work on it further at that point that I didn't delve that deep into the adjustments. I did try an experiment and used the midriff band from the previous larger size muslin on the new, smaller muslin and that actually seemed to solve the too small problem really well. Now I have my usual hollow chest adjustment to make, but on a bodice that has no darts I have no idea how to accomplish this. The other ladies told me where I could find the info I need, so I know for next time. I've just been distracted by the new and shiny things ever since, so I haven't bothered with this any further. Hopefully I get in a more "get this figured out" mood soon.

On my sewing table right now is a freshly traced Sorrel top pattern I just grabbed yesterday. I just couldn't resist the Sew Independent pattern bundle that's up for grabs right now (today is the last day if you want it). Of course the patterns I loved the most were in the highest price bracket, lol. Anyway, I really loved the Sorrel top with it's neat inset collars. I love a good t-shirt, and this one just has such neat options. I printed it out right away, put it together last night and traced off my size. I've already pulled out a dark teal interlock fabric for the body and a blue floral t-shirt for the collar - both of these were thrifted so I'm ok with using them as a wearable muslin. I've never made anything with inset pieces like this before, so I'm curious to see how I manage. Hopefully I can make this up after work tonight :)

I'm also REALLY excited that I finally have a copy of Butterick 6217. I've been trying to buy this pattern for months at the pattern sales, but it's always been completely gone or only available in the small size. My sister found this one and grabbed it for me this weekend and I was so so happy, lol. I have 2.5 yards of that same rose print swiss dot fabric just begging to be made int o this shirt. I can't wait! I also have about 3 other dresses floating around in my head that I really want to make up. If only I could just sew and not worry about working or any issues with fitting, amiright?! I would be so productive then. Anyway, I'm sure this pattern isn't far off in my future :)

Phew! That was a long one! That's what's happening over in my neck of the woods. Head over to Gracey's Goodies if you'd like to see what some other knitters have in the works as well :)