Did I mention that I love hoods?

After I made my account on Ravelry, I spent countless hours browsing through patterns. (You shouldn’t do that at work. Really. It was embarrassing when my boss caught me, but she was really cool about it and asked me about knitting.) As a result, most of the patterns in my queue were added in 2009. They currently amount to 19 pages of my 24 page queue, and yes, I know that’s insanely long, but come on. It’s Ravelry. What did you think would happen, that I wouldn’t totally get addicted to it?

It was originally 27 pages, but I recently realized that I wouldn’t be able to knit everything on it in one lifetime, so I went through it and deleted a whopping three pages. (Note to self: a Victorian crochet collar? Really?) In the process I rediscovered this vest pattern. It had a hood, what more is there to say? Also, while the hood definitely was the main selling point, I need to make more casual garments. I have lots of pretty stuff for special occasions and like to forget that I need something to wear on your average day as well.

This is my first knit with super bulky yarn. I’m going to state the obvious here and say that it was very quick. It took about a day from start to finish. Unfortunately the author didn’t specify gauge, but I think it comes out fairly big. (Looking at other project notes on Ravelry, this seems to be a common observation.) I even used 12mm, not 12.75mm needles as stated in the pattern, and there’s still enough room in the vest to comfortably wear something underneath.

The pattern itself is fairly easy to follow, except for one part that was worded in a rather confusing manner. When you start the decreases at the front, it says: Rep row 2 and 3 until 12 sts remain, ending with row 2. I thought I had to decrease until I had 12 stitches on the needle. This is wrong. You should decrease until there are 18 stitches on the needle, the 12 stitches refer to the knit section on the front, excluding the 6 stitches used for cables.

I’m very pleased with this vest. It’s wonderfully warm and perfect for layering. The grey yarn is very soft and has such lovely stitch definition. Look at those crisp cables! (I realize that I should block the vest, but for now I just enjoy the uneven stitch effect too much, it kind of adds to the casual and laidback look.) My favourite part, however, is that giant hood. It’s just SO COOL.