Jennie's Heirloom Vest

Possibly our most prolific knitter, Jennie, has been knitting up her stash lately, and made a cabled vest for her daughter. She liked the vest so much, that she was inspired to make a vest for herself, but being Jennie, instead of finding someone else's pattern in an adult size, she wrote a completely new and individual pattern, using several new-to-her stitches, in order to get the vest she was after.

She has made an impressively smart outfit - the yarn is Heirloom Celtic, colour 949, an alpaca and wool blend, 8ply/category 3, knitted with 2 strands at once to give 16 ply/bulky weight.



Jennie is planning to write up the pattern to put on Ravelry. I think it will be popular.

Ballet Leg Warmers

Making a ballet wrap meant that a request for the matching leg warmers was almost inevitable, as the wrap is really for dance class, not just fashion (although it has been worn with jeans and a t shirt down the street already).



I was not unhappy about this request as there was about 90% left of my fourth ball of #58 Sirdar Crofter DK from making the wrap.
I started out making the legwarmers from Sirdar book 349, but used double pointed needles and knit in the round, to avoid the sewing up at the end that I like to leave out when I can.
Once I had finished the rib cuff, I decided not to change to stocking stitch, as I felt this would make the legwarmers too floppy for my daughter. The high cotton and acrylic content of Crofter is terrific for wash and wear, but means the yarn has less elasticity and recovery than those with a higher percentage of wool content.
The legwarmers are quite successful made entirely in rib, showing the fair isle effect pattern well, and used not quite all of the two balls called for in the original pattern.
I finished these legwarmers with a stretchy cast off - picking up one stitch from the row below every 15th stitch or so, before slipping a stitch over to bind off in my usual manner.

Ballerina Wrap in Sirdar Crofter DK

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter break. The weather was so gorgeous here that I spent much more time cycling than knitting (what a terrible admission for a yarn addict, just forget I said that), but I do have some finished objects to show you.
This is the Ballerina Wrap , Design D, from Sirdar Crofter DK pattern book 349. I have knit it in shade #58, Moorland, and it was very quick to make.



I made a few minor changes to the pattern. My daughter wants this wrap top primarily to wear to dance class, and felt that the pattern was a little too long to wear over a leotard, so I have made it 5cm shorter in the body. I also knit i-cord, rather than making a garter stitch tie, just because I really like i-cord. I crocheted 2 rows as a neck finish rather than picking up stitches and knitting an edge, as I really need more crochet practice, and am taking every opportunity to get some!
I found the yarn delightful to knit, soft and cosy, and am very pleased that this is a machine washable yarn (great for active wear knits). However, I did have a small yarn problem. There was one knot in 4 balls, not the end of the world, but unfortunately, the knot made a pattern break that was rather strange. I kept knitting, expecting the pattern repeat to come around so that I could (curses)reverse knit and match the two fronts, but it didn't seem to match the other knitting, even after 10cm. I eventually worked out that the post knot yarn was wound in the opposite direction, so the pattern repeat was upside down! Probably most other knitters will not be as slow as me to work this out. All I can say in my defence was that at this point I was knitting late in the evening after a glass of wine....