Making It up as I went

knitted with Baah La Jolla in Summer Romance

This is a lesson I've learned not in how to make a vest but in how to buy yarn.  Don't succumb to the lure of beautiful yarn you don't have a plan for!  I just loved this yarn but it was pricey - or pricey for me at $29 per hank.  I bought two and the store owner and I thought I could get a vest out of that.  Well, I did but not without a lot of challenges.

First I could not find a pattern that would work with that little yarn.  Finally I found this one where I liked the look and figured I could just make it with the yarn I had.  The catch was that you had to order and pay shipping on a paper pattern.  It looked simple enough so I figured I could just do it myself.  I decided to put the long point in a different place anyway and then I figured I'd be bored silly doing stockinette or garter stitch for the whole thing so I used a triple chevron from an old knitting pattern book.  The eyelets were added again just to have something to break up the simple stitching.  I never really wrote anything down, just laying my work over an old fabric vest increasing and decreasing as needed to get everything to fit.  I'm kind of amazed that it did actually fit.

Half way through it did look like I'd have enough yarn though it would be close.  It was so close that I had this small ball of yarn left when it was time to do the arm holes.  I measured it out and rolled it into two balls so I could tell how much I'd have for each one.  When I had a few yards of that left, I unpicked my last edge on the inside left which was a bit skimpy and added another 4 rows piecing things together as needed.  I probably had 2 yards total yarn left at the end.

I was planning on one button like the pattern I'd eyed at the beginning but I put the buttonhole in completely the wrong place and I needed a bit more structure thus 3 buttons with loops for closure.  This creates many options for how to wear the vest so I've shown it in various configurations.

So while I got something unique and it worked out, I'll never buy yarn again that I don't have a pattern for it or at least a very good idea that I have plenty of yarn for a specific project.

Just don't ask me for the pattern for this because I don't have it.  Knitting is fun for me and relaxing and I'm also determined not to try to turn another hobby into a business.  This one is just a hobby.