I mentioned my personal challenge of making my way through my collection of Better Homes and Gardens Knitting and Crochet Collection magazines. I have knitted my first item, well 2 items but I will explain. The pattern is from the 2015 edition and is “Builder’s Work Wear” Previously the only clothing or accessories I have knitted were shawls, scarves, cowls, headband, socks and beanies. I had never knitted a vest or a jumper. I have this mental checklist in my head of things “real” knitters make, jumper/vests are on that list. Baby items are also on the list. I had never done any of that so this project was a real first for me.
I mentioned I’ve knitted 2 items. When I made the first version I liked that I had completed one of the items from the magazine and that I had knitted a baby item but I wasn’t 100% happy with it. It didn’t looked the magazine, it was like when you try something you’ve seen on pinterest and fail miserably at it. The neckline looked really wrong. I had enough yarn left and my OCD wouldn’t let it go so I had to start a 2nd one. It was only when I reading the pattern again I discovered I had misread the pattern. Instead of decreasing every 4 rows on the neckline I did every row hence why the neckline looks so tiny.
Version 2 I did knit a little different to the instructions. The pattern has you knit the back as one piece and bind off. For the front you knit up to the neckline then work on one half and bind off later going back to finish the other side again bind off. You seam the vest at the shoulders and side seams. So I thought I would test my knitting skills and work out how to knit the front and back in one piece so I would only have to join the side seams as my mattress stitch isn’t the best. I managed to work it out all on my own! I started from the bottom front as per the pattern at the neckline I joined a second ball of yarn and was knitting both sides of the neckline at once. I was decreasing every 4 rows like the pattern said but my decreases on one half of it fell at the end of that row instead of the start of it like the pattern says. I decreased the shoulders until I had 23 stitches on each side. To start the back section I picked up 23 stitches on one side when I had reached the middle section then knitted into the 23 stiches from the other side of the neckline to join it completely with just one ball of yarn. As I was knitting the back section from top down I reverse the pattern instructions so I knitted the amount of rows it said for the arm holes then decreased 3 stitches each end to come in for the body section instead of increasing as you did from bottom up. As this was a simple pattern it wasn’t too hard to work this all out. I have up knitting confidence on this vest.
I made the largest size. It will be way to big for baby for this winter but maybe next year or even the year after she will get some wear out of it. I am very proud of this now. This is ticking lots of things on my list. It’s a baby item, an item from one of the BH&G magazines and I feel like a “real” knitter as I have made an item of clothing.
♦ 2014
♦ 2015 – Builder’s Work Wear
♦ 2016
♦ 2017
♦ 2018
♦ 2019
♦ 2020
I kept going back to this pattern in the magazine so I had to make it. It was a really relaxing and quick knit. Seeing the 2 side by side I’m glad I went back and tried again. This vest will go with the baby blanket I knitted. It uses the same yarn as I pinched some from the blanket to make it. After I had joined the second one together I took apart the first one and used some of the yarn to finish off the blanket. I’m not about to take up baby knitting regularly but this one was fun to try and who knows I may knit it again.
Cassiy
stitchnsewcreates 