A stash of yarn of any size is a red flag to me that I have bought to much yarn and it is time to make something. Since moving to Maryland I have purchased 11 skeins of fingering weight hand dyed yarns. I really made my selections with abandon. I love the colors in each skein.
To scale my yarn inventory down I decided I needed a pull- over vest to be my next project. Laying my hand dyed yarns out into a well lighted area I was able to choose color ways that worked well together. I selected four skeins for this particular project with the intention of making stripes. Two skeins are semi solid and two skeins are multi colored. I know that large swaths of any of these yarns will create pools of colors hence the decision to stripe.
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| As you can see I still unwittingly achieved pools of color. But I don't see them as too annoying because still there are breaks in the color via the semi solid stripes. |
What I had not paid attention to was the gauge or the design of each skein. Each yarn, though labelled as fingering/sock weight, has different twist and ply. The tendency today is to purchase one skein of hand dyed yarn with the intention of making a one skein project initially. Then to use the remaining yardage in a scrappy project like a scrappy pair of socks or a scrappy blanket. I love these scrappy style projects. But fingering weight socks, though an enjoyable make, I'm finding no longer fit into my wardrobe. I need thicker, denser socks.
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| From left to right is Kim Dyes Yarn Rustic Sock which is a plied yarn, DragonFly Fibers Pixie which is a single ply yarn and Copper Corgi Savannah Sock which is a tightly twisted plied yarn (the semi solid yellow and semi solid red). |
Knitting Disclaimer - I am a continental knitter with loose stitches. The Rustic Sock provides excellent stitch definition, the Pixie has a good twist for a single and blossoms more once it is knit, the Savannah Sock has finer twisted plies making it a thinner yarn and has nice stitch definition … could have used a smaller needle size with this last yarn. I am using US3, 24" circulars for this entire project.
The vest pattern
Initially, I had no pattern to follow; I was happy to knit in stockinette until it came to shaping the 'v' neck and arm holes. I found Veste Everst pattern after an introduction to Veronik Avery's designs (thank you Fruity Knitting Podcast). I like her design reasoning. Though the pattern calls for a heavier weight yarn and is actually a cabled project I like the basic design instructions.
I will post the finished project on Ravelry in the near future. The back has begun and I am playing a bit of yarn chicken with one of the skeins. We'll see what kind of magic can be used to work that out.
