Hey, I thought maybe it's about time I gave an update on the 2009 FO Finishing Project — where I somehow sort of decided I would finish all my UFO's before the end of the year. Progress has indeed been made, and I've got a couple more FO's to show for it!
Posts Tagged vest
FO Update
Dec 17
You – Out of the Pool!
Oct 29
Wow, I'm having a hard time getting this blog post off the ground.
A few minutes ago, I had a couple of sad little paragraphs here, crabbing about life's circumstances, which have conspired the past couple of weeks to make things run less smoothly than usual in my little corner of the world. Nothing really horrible or earth-shattering has happened (so far) — just a lot of "stuff" all at the same time.
More recent FO’s
Jul 2
Here's some eye candy for ya: a few FO's!
Sari Silk bag: this was knit from some recycled-sari silk yarn, although at this point I'm not sure exactly which manufacturer. This major FO accomplishment started life as "Unbiased", a bag pattern from Knitty, Fall 2004.
UFOlympics! the fourth event
Jul 21
Table of contents for UFOlympics
- UFOlympics! the Summer Games
- UFOlympics! the Decathlon
- UFOlympics! the first event
- UFOlympics! the second event
- UFOlympics! the third event
- UFOlympics! the fourth event
- UFOlympics! the fifth and sixth events
- UFOlympics! the seventh event
- UFOlympics: the eighth and ninth events
- UFOlympics! the tenth and eleventh events
OK, so I know I said I wasn't going to work on the UFOs during my "vacation".
Well, that was before I got strep throat on the very first day of my "vacation". I mean, it's not like I had this penciled in on my calendar:
Then and…Where?
Oct 4
Many of my knitting friends know that I love, love, LOVE old knitting books. Old VKs are a fave, but I’ll thumb through just about anything. (And I have the overflowing bookshelf in my studio to prove it.) Often you can find a stitch pattern, a silhouette, or a detail that will spark an idea. Looking at vintage styles is a great way to train your eye to distinguish between short-lived trends and enduring classics. Most knitters I know don’t want to knit a sweater that will be out of style next year. After all that work, they want something that will be wearable for a while. If you can open a 40-year-old book and spot something that still looks good, you have a pretty good idea that it will look good for another 40 years! Vogue Knitting used to have a feature in every issue called “Then and Now", which was by far the best thing in the magazine. They would take an old style from a vintage issue and make up a modern version, using current yarns and colors. Occasionally they modified the fit a bit, but mostly the copy was true to the original. Unfortunately, and unfathomably, they stopped doing it. It became hit-or-miss in the mid-to-late nineties, and by now has apparently been given up completely. I have no idea why on earth they discontinued this feature! Now I can only count myself lucky that I learned this concept early in my knitting career. 
Here’s my latest vintage knit – a skimpy black vest, made in my fave fiber (mohair) – along with the modern ad that had me looking around for skimpy vests.
Compare my version to the original vintage pattern pic. And just in case anyone else wants to find it, here is the cover of the vintage Spinnerin book it is in.
Interesting note: the vintage directions do not result in the somewhat odd sleeves shown in the vintage picture. (I guess typos in knitting patterns have been around as long as there have been patterns.) You would have to cast on some extra sts at the armholes to get the silhouette shown, and the instructions don’t call for that at all. I knitted the armholes according to the directions, although I modified the original instructions to knit it all in one piece, eliminating the side seams. Great stuff!
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