Small Circle Vest Complete!

Finishing went a little faster than I expected. YAY! My daughter loves it - so it’s worth all the work (even the hand sewing).

Vest was done in Finnish 2+2 stitch with Brown Sheep Nature Spun Worsted and Malabrigo Rios - Arco Iris.

Gross grain ribbon was added across the rows on the back to stabilize the clasps. (This stitch stretches across rows quite a bit.)

Detail of the back center, where I started the vest. Had fun playing with what shapes I could make from a nalbinding chain.

Things I learned from this project:

1. I want to find a better way to start/end stripes.
2. I need to figure out how to measure around the edge of loopy work better so it doesn't puff out.  (Unless I want it to.)
3. Stripes of color seem to make the work go faster. I can see the progress in each row.
4. Plastic marker pins didn't work well for this - they pulled too much on the stitch loops. Maybe pinning them in the middle of the stitch would work better?

More Knotwork Experiments and Progress on "The Vest that Never Ends"

The nalbinding knotwork bug is still biting. Just after the cowl was finished, I dug out my trusty old (20+ years old) copy of Celtic Art: The Methods of Construction. I tried several different knots.  The ones with large gaps do not seem to work nicely with my attempts. But tight close together knots like the ones below seem to look good after they are created.

The second one is the one that caught my interest for a fashion scarf (too many holes to be a practical scarf) done in Finnish 2+2 stitch. With these knots I haven't been counting stitches obsessively like I did with the pretzel knot cowl. I just work long chains of the yarns and make the knots. I'll keep going with the knots (below) until I run out of green.  I suspect these knots could be done in rows and be a fabric by themselves.  But I don't have enough green to test that theory. So I'll edge it in blue to make the scarf a tad wider.

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The circle vest I've been working on officially has been given the nickname "The Vest that Never Ends". It's taking quite a while to finish the project, but I also thought it fit because the colors spiral out from the center into what looks like infinity and they get lost in the stripe effect.

 Only 2-4 more inches?  Maybe there is an end after all...