Yippee!

The endless I-cord edging on the vest is done! I need to block it, and find the zipper now. I also need to find some facing because the edges curl horribly. The I-cord edging helped a lot, and blocking will help more, but I’m not sure that blocking will fix it completely. So, I need to find a little grosgain ribbon and tack it in.

Now that the project is done, I’m quite pleased with it, especially since this is the fully my own design sweater. I’ve taken other sweater patterns, tweaked it here and there, changed the yarn, changed the gauge, but never completely from scratch. I’m happy. Just doing it that first time takes the fear away.

Anyway, I’m already thinking about ways of improving on this pattern. Most of it will make sense once I put a picture up this weekend. But …

• I think a double knit collar would look better. Not only would it not curl, but the weight of it will make it lay when open. Also, it will add a little extra warm when you need to pull the zipper all the way up anyway.
• I really needed 3 balls of contrast color, but the sale bin only had 2. So I edged the armholes with main color instead. The contrast would have looked better. (I could have resolved this if I did part of the pocket lining in main color instead of contrasting, but I didn’t want to do more intarsia — and I really had high hopes that I would have enough yarn. I was only about 30 yards short.)
• I would like to figure out someway of keeping the piece from curling so much, but I really wanted the flatness of st st. I didn’t want any sort of patterned edging. I will need to explore this further.

All in all, I’m pretty pleased. The entire project used just a hair less than 8 balls of Jo Sharp, 6 of main color, 2 of contrast color. At $2/ball, not a bad price for a vest, eh?

I took a little time out from the I-cord and finished off that pesky second Crusoe sock. Now I have a matching pair.

I also started a new pair of ankle socks for Martin using some Opal that I picked up. I’m playing with the Strong Heel. I had turned the heel on it, and then decided that I didn’t like the fabric that it was giving me. I was worried about how the heel was going to wear. So, I ripped it out and started over with needles one size down. I’m now using US Size 0.