Cabled Vest in Sage - Completed

It took me awhile to knit this vest. About two weeks. The seaming and finishing only took a few hours to complete. So, I present to you my cabled vest called Sage and its review. Enjoy!

Cabled Vest - Plymouth Fantasy Naturale in Sage. Actual color


Name of Pattern:
Cabled Vest from the Tahki Yarns Terra Collection, Spring/Summer 2008

Tahki Yarns Terra Collection booklet

Designed by:
Rosemary Drysdale

Pattern/Garment Description:
Cropped sleeveless lace vest with cabled fronts.

Size(s):
Small (38), Medium (42), Large (44-1/2), & XLarge (48-1/2)

I made size Small. The vest came out slightly smaller in width because of the type of yarn I used...mercerized cotton. See additional information below.

Yarns Used:
Plymouth Yarn Fantasy Naturale in Sage. This is 100% mercerized cotton yarn. Lovely sheen and the stitches form beautifully. The yarn tends to split a bit, but it's not a problem for me as I know how to handle this type yarn.

This yarn is heavy worsted weight with 18 sts/4 inches (#8 needles) and comes in 140 yard hanks. This heavier worsted weight yarn pulls the garment in length slightly which will cause the width to be slightly smaller. If I had used a non-mercerized heavy worsted cotton yarn, I'm sure the vest would have had a slightly looser fit. This is my personal assessment.

I used 3.5 hanks of yarn.

Gauge:
18 sts = 4 inches in lace pattern stitch pattern

I was right on gauge with this yarn.

Knitting Tools Used:
Circular Needles: 40 inch in size 8
Cable needle (size 8)
Stitch markers to mark beginning of armholes and to mark the button placement on the placket
Crochet hook to help pick up stitches around the shoulders
Yarn/tapestry needle with bent tip
4 buttons - 5/8 inch

Techniques I used/Things I learned:
Basic techniques that I've used before on other projects.
- Long tail cast on
- K2,P2 ribbing
- M1 - used two types of M1s to knit the increases along the sides
- K2tog & SSK - for the lace pattern and to knit the decreases along the front edges
- YO - for the lace pattern
- CB4F and CB4B (cable stitch patterns)
- Knitting 4 buttonholes
- BO in pattern
- Pickup stitches along neckline

Two front sections with stitch markers marking button placement on the left placket and matching buttonholes created on the right placket

Close up of the front plackets

Changes I Made to the Pattern:
I basically knitted the garment according to the instructions. I made an oooops in the front section. Instead of knitting 8" before BO at the front placket, I knitted 9". I was knitting merrily along and forgot to measure. I bound off and then continued knitting for a few inches and realized my mistake. Must remember not to knit and chat at the same time. :)

I was suppose to pickup about 110 stitches around the front and back neckline which would allow me to start with K2 and end with K2 on the RS. I've learned from previous projects not to pickup every stitch, so I just picked up stitches randomly and came up with 96 stitches. I knew 96 wouldn't work because when divisible by 2 it would give me an even number. So I tinked about 10 stitches and picked up 8 stitches for a total of 94. When divided by 2, the resulting number was an odd number. This would give me the starting K2 and ending K2 around the neckline.

What I Like About this Pattern:
A somewhat challenging pattern. The cable and lace patterns kept my interest. It turned out to be a fun project.

Close up of front lace and cable patterns

What I Dislike About this Pattern:
No dislikes.

My Pattern Rating (Beginner, Easy, Intermediate, Hard):
I rate this pattern as Intermediate.

Conclusion/Additional Comments:
Over the last year, I have been slowly collecting the Tahki Yarns booklets. I envisioned tackling these seemingly difficult projects when I got to the advanced knitting stage of my life. In the last two months of my knitting career, I have dismissed looking at the pattern experience. I now look at the finished garment pictures (is there a Wow factor) and then read through the instructions to see if the project is worth my time.

I'm happy to say that I'm over that knitting hurdle and feel I can tackle anything I put my mind to it.

There are no errors in this pattern. The cable and lace patterns went well together. Rosemary did an excellent job in designing this pattern.

The only difficult part of this project was knitting the front right section. I thought I found an error, but it turned out that I needed to reverse the lace stitch patterns as well as the cable pattern. At the same time, reverse the increase stitch pattern and the decrease stitch pattern. The instructions for the front right section is typically what you find in most pattern instructions..."reverse shaping of the left front". I ended up writing my own instructions for the right piece, but ended up not needing them after all.

This pattern is from the Tahki Yarns Terra Collection, Spring/Summer 2008 edition. I highly recommend this lovely pattern.

My TNT vest

Front placket with silver buttons

The back side

I will be back to post live model pictures.

Happy Knitting!

** Update: I came across the cable & lace vest pattern. Check it out. :) **