.Knitting project: Zigvest.

Hey, hey! I knitted something! It only took me a year and it's not a Honey Cowl (there have been 10 of those)!

This pattern is the Zigvest from TiKKi.  It's a beautifully written pattern, but boy did I experience some grief with it! All problems caused by my own inexperience and foggy mindedness, but I got there in the end!! I used some Luxury 8 ply yarn in Koala from Bendigo. This is a good, economical yarn...personally I wouldn't wear it directly on my skin, it's a bit too itchy for me, but I'm pretty picky about how fibers feel on my skin. Great for a vest that will be worn over other clothing though.

This vest is definitley the most advanced pattern I have knit. It was all good until I had to split for the neckline and then for some reason I just couldn't get the zigzag pattern to continue properly all the way up to the shoulders. I tried at least 10 times to get the pattern to continue, with no luck. I even had help from my clever knitty friend and my Mum and I just couldn't pull it together! I think that the main problem is that I left the vest unfinished at this point for many months because I had hit a roadblock, then every time I picked it up to try and finish it I became more and more confused because it had just been so long since I had worked on it!

I was determined to just finish the thing and my Mum suggested that I stop the zigzag pattern at the neckline and just knit some plain rows up to the shoulder seams in place of the pattern. I was a little apprehensive to start with as I thought it would end up looking tacky but the back of the vest is all plain and I don't mind the look that I ended up at all. And....I FINISHED IT!

Tommy is so skinny that his chest measurement came in at the size for a 3 year old. I didn't think to add length to the vest (duh!) and there was a growth spurt somewhere there in the 12 months that it took for me to finish it, so I don't think we will get more than one Winter's wear out of it. At least I have Harvey to hand it on to in a few years time!

As painful as it was to finish the vest off, the bulk of the knitting was smooth sailing - I was so proud of myself for getting the zigzag pattern to look as good as it does...not a bad effort for my first attempt! I did learn a lot, it is very wearable and Tommy loves it so that's all that matters, right?!

So, now that I have finished this vest, I'm trying to decide what to cast on next...I have a strict "one knitting project at a time" rule which is great incentive to finish something off! I'm leaning strongly towards a shawl - maybe this one or this one. But I did just look through TiKKi's patterns as I was linking to the Zigvest and am feeling tempted by her new Posy cardigan, or perhaps the Ferris Wheel or even something for me - maybe a Summer Festival or Lizzie cardi? Decisions, decisions...

Have you knit any of these??