Pattern:
Sirdar 1952
Yarn: Jarol
Heritage DK, 2 x 100g balls in colour: #102 (I think)
Needles: 3¼ and 4mm circs, used flat (except for the armholes)
And on a really very wet and miserable day, having a snug new waistcoat to wear is perfect.
I actually sewed in the last end and blocked it last week, but with waiting for it to dry and then more waiting for buttons, the reveal got a bit delayed.
I love the finished result. The stitch pattern gives a lovely texture to the yarn and the styling is very simple but cute. I can’t say I enjoyed knitting the stitch pattern, though. It wasn’t hard, but needed concentration on every couple of rows and so wasn’t mindless either. By the second front, I was pretty much forcing myself to sit down and knit it. What saved the whole thing from being stuffed in a bag and hidden in a corner was the fact that I was knitting the waistcoat and therefore didn’t have two sleeves full of pattern to knit as well.
I followed the pattern completely as written, even managing to pick up enough stitches for the collar and button bands. I did toy with the idea of only working two or three buttonholes at the top, but went with all six, which I slightly regretted when I went to buy buttons.
One modification I did do was to sew up the side seams and leave a gap for the armholes, then pick up and knit the ribbing around the armhole in the round, which just meant picking up a couple fewer stitches to ensure the ribbing worked.
I wasn’t sure what sort of buttons to go for at first. I was thinking about dark wooden ones, but then saw these adorable heart-shaped metal buttons here and they clearly were perfect:
My only niggle is that they came in packs of five, so I had to cough up for two lots. But it also means I have four cute buttons for something else…
The yarn worked well for the pattern, and it was good to use up more stash rather than buy even more yarn! Rose is showing a preference for red things at the moment, so I am going to encourage this.
And finally, this year I have knitted (and plan to knit) more Sirdar patterns than I have in all the years I’ve been knitting. I was always unreasonably (as it turns out) sniffy about their patterns in the past, because of the fact they were knitted flat (and didn’t have any charts, which does still bug me a bit). Once I had discovered circular knitting I felt that clearly this was superior to any other method and seams were for mad people.
But after knitting so many top-down raglans, I think I needed a change and I was ignoring so many cute and interesting patterns. And seaming isn’t so bad once you’ve done a few projects. I’ll be knitting chart-less Shetland lace shawls before you know it!