The Vest...

...is quickly taking over my life. I'm working on 1 and have 2 more on the horizon. The thing is--in the interest of full disclosure and complete honesty--I'm kind of a sweaty person. But, if I'm not sweating, I'm freezing cold.
Unless I'm wearing a vest. The vest is the wonder temperature regulator. Keeps you warm without overheating, and most importantly without all the extra fabric under my arms to make me even sweatier.

So, given my respect for the vest, here are the upcoming vest endeavors:

#1

From KnitandTonic, I love this. Simple, but totally clean and classic. I tend to wear lots of color and patterns, so this could be good for balance.
I'm always looking for balance.














#2
Look familiar?
Yeah, it's not so different, but I'm going to do it in browns with tan bamboo and dark brown/grey/purplish mohair (worked in with the bamboo for the ribbing), so think it'll be a little more interesting.
This one's from Rowan's Arabesque, which I like, but not enough to buy the whole book. I think the pattern is simple enough to just wing it, though I've never made something other than a scarf or hat without a pattern.







Exciting new challenges.
Whenever I do this with sewing it never quite turns out the way I expect. But I think I could just follow the first pattern but with stockinette for the body.
Yes. It's a bright future. Full of vests.

On the needles currently...

The current project is more from Twinkle (my obsession of late)--the Biker vest. I wouldn't have thought I would have particularly liked this one, but it started to call out to me...And then I saw a couple of gorgeous ones on Ravelry (another new obsession) and it became my new favorite thing. I had some initial problems with the lace pattern and as a result the bottom is a little screwy, but I'm keeping it--it looks kind of interesting and almost intentional--a little like ribbing. Also, after ripping it out a few times already I'm sick of starting over. I'm using two strands of Aurora Bulky in teal on 17 needles, which looked bad at first because of some sloppy knitting. So I ripped it out and started with a single strand, but it just wasn't substantial enough.


This is going back to the two strands, with some more careful knitting and it looks pretty good. I should say, the pattern calls for size 15 needles and 4 strands of Twinkle Cruise. The cruise is quite nice, but surprisingly expensive--and also doesn't seem to come in the same variety of colors as the Soft Chunky. So this was, and still is I guess, a bit of an experiment. So far so good...

Start.

I feel like ownership of a blog is like buying a house. Everyone I know seems to be doing it and therefore, so must I. Of course, I haven't actually bought a house. Someday there will be a beautiful old run down house in need of my imaginary time in Brooklyn....Williamsburg, Park Slope, or I'll be a late pioneer in Crown Heights.

But for now, I am in Washington, DC, sort of back home, where, because the city isn't quite my "scene," I have endless amounts of time to create...a blessing that I'm hoping this blog will keep me from squandering.

A friend gave me my first knitting needles and some Manos yarn almost exactly a year ago and since then knitting has become a second obsession, after sewing, which has been known to delve into sweatshop-like depths. No eating, no drinking, just slaving away until something is finished. This usually ends sadly because I start to get sloppier and sloppier in my starved and parched haze. But leaving something unfinished for later is torture. I'm not quite this terrible anymore and have slightly more self control. The knitting projects of late have been so satisfying. More on those will be coming...