Brown "Fad-Classic" knitted vest

Here's my new sweater!

This is the "Fad-Classic" from Knit and Tonic. This yard is O~Wool Balance, which is 50% organic merino and 50% organic cotton. You may remember the yarn from this post, October 2008. I was trying then to make a sweater vest in a different pattern, but it turned out really big. I'll be the first to admit I don't know that much about yarn. Fabric, yes, yarn, no. I was thinking I wanted something a little warm but not stifling for my temperate Texas winters. And I wanted to match the brown stripes in this shirt. I think I paid a little too much for organic fibers when I really don't care that much about organic. (I think organic is great, I just don't like paying more for it.) And then the fabric the yarn creates has zero drape! So after the first failure with this yarn, I made the vest in the smallest size (32 inch bust) with size 7 needles (the pattern called for size 6). And worried and worried until I could finally try it on.

Perfect fit! And the perfect amount of warmth for what I consider a cold day (in the 50's). Hey, I'm a southern gal, born and raised. :)

The front:

The back:

This is a very simple pattern, but the textured stitches really slowed me down. I started this December 7, 2008, frogged it a week later because of wonky stitches, abandoned it over Christmas, picked it up after New Year's, and finally finished it February 8th. Not too bad in my book. I'm trying to complete something knitted every 2 months.

Here's a close-up of the trim picked-up-and-knitted around the neck. I'm super proud of myself for learning how to do this so cleanly. Now I won't be afraid of this technique ever again!

Up next is the Bell-Sleeved scoop-neck top from GlamKnits by Stefanie Japel. I love Stefanie Japel's designs, I just feel like her patterns often have lots of errors and the sweaters are altered for the pictures, so you never know what you'll end up with. I can state this because I'm working on my 3rd sweater of hers. Here are a few pictures from the book:

This model is standing up, but you can't see the top of the shoulder, which I think is probably cinched up. This sweater is super low, and I modified it to be higher for me.


Here the model is actually laying down. She looks gorgeous, but I can't tell at all how the sweater hangs.

Here's my current progress:

I'm through with the yoke, raglan set up, and darts. Look at this dart close-up:

This was also called for on the center back. Um, I don't remember having a third boob on my back! So I had to frog the darts out and redo the back with more rows between the decreases. Sorry for so much complaining. It's just that I'm a newbie at this knitting thing and having to redesign a pattern isn't that easy for me. I'm hoping this turns out well. It's my own fault for choosing a pattern that's so new not many people have made it or posted it at Ravelry.com.