I made a new thing ….. absolutely loving designing. As do we all, I know what I like and I know how I want something to look. I’m loving the process of seeing it in my mind’s eye, and translating that into a tangible, wearable, beautiful thing!
And what I love possibly the most of all is the ability to embrace slow fashion and handmade … but not have it be tooooooooo sloooooow 😬 I love the meditative qualities of the handmade process, but I’ve also never been known for my patience. I tend toward the looser knit and crochet - let me work with some bulky and chunky yarns and some big hooks and needles - am I right?
So here’s the pattern for my newest design. It is highly customizable in terms of length - I’ve made mine a little on the short side. For a vest I tend toward a more cropped look, but this would work equally well in a mid and even a longer length. Just add repeats of the 4 row pattern to achieve whatever length you want. And although it is a looser, non-fitted garment, and likely will work for many given how stretchy it is, it is easily made wider as well. As I’ve utilized the lace stitch of this pattern, I’ve done it on an 18 stitch repeat. It can work equally well on a 24 stitch repeat as well.
I’d love to hear what you think and see what you make - please connect and let me know how it goes.
The yarn I used for this project is from Hobby Lobby, Yarn Bee - it’s called Breathe Deep Super Bulky, and it’s a 6 weight. It’s a lovely, drapey yarn with a chainette construction that flows so well in this design. It comes in an approximately 300 yard skein, and it took most of one to make the vest.
I worked it up on size 19 needles to keep the stitches super loose and able to flow and drape.
It is truly as simple as possible - I love not having to overthink 😊
I made 3 rectangles of the exact same size - one is the back, and the other 2 are the front panels. When you have made all 3 you simply seam them together at the shoulders and down by the waist for a few inches to give an armhole. I seamed approximately 7” at all 4 seams just for consistency and it seemed to give it the fit and looseness and flow I was looking for.
The panels are worked on a 4 row patterns as follows:
Row 1: K all stitches
Row 2: P all stitches
Row 3: ** (K 2 tog) 3 times; (YO, K) 6 times, (K 2 tog) 3 times** repeat from ** to ** across all stitches
Row 4: K all stitches
And that is the 4 row pattern. I cast on 36 stitches for all 3 panels and worked that pattern repeat 8 times and then bound off and seamed them together.
Let me know how it goes 💙