Learning From The Past

In yesterday's post I mentioned that the new beret was intended as an alternative to one I had made pre-blog. Here it is in all of it's colorful glory.

This is from Anna Zilboorg's book, 45 Fine & Fanciful Hats To Knit. I think that it's Beret #4 but as I recall I simplified it a bit and may have left out details so I'm not quite certain. The yarn is Winter Cotton from Schoeller & Stahl that I bought from Elann and by looking at my buying history there I can determine that I made this hat in 2003. I had only been knitting for about 2 years then and this was my first stranding so looking at this hat is quite a learning experience. Now I can see all of the mistakes I made.

I have worn this hat ever winter since I made it. It's quite warm and it fits well. Most of it's flaws are known only to me. From the outside the only noticeable flaw is the puckering of the stitches. I should've made my floats looser. The pattern is also not easy to read and that's probably due to the yarn choice. The yarn I used is an aran but the pattern called for worsted. I could also be that my gauge was off or my knitting was lousy. It's ok because it soesn't bother me too much.

The wrong side of the hat is more problematic. You can plainly see here that I had no idea how to do stranding. What a mess! I also never bothered to weave in the ends. Yes, I wore it with loose ends. If you tuck them up inside then nobody's the wiser. I finally wove in a few of them a few weeks ago but I've still got a few to go.

I still like this hat and now, looking back at it and contemplating the flaws I feel tempted to see if I could do a better job now. Maybe a Selbu Modern?

A side effect of searching my Elann history was seeing the listing for the yarn I bought to make hubbo a vest. It was waaaaaaayyy back in 2004 when I got that bright idea. The guilt of seeing proof of procrastination in print coupled with a certain knitter mentioning the vest she's making for her husband recently in my husband's presence made me feel like this was the time to get this particular monkey off my back. Here's the monkey.



So I started thinking about it (mostly how much I hate this project) . I considered all of the alternatives and I came up with a plan. I figured that if I found the right pattern then knitting an endless vest would suck less. Let's face it. Mistake rib looks really good. It's a bold rib that is strong and manly but when you're knitting miles of it with no relief it's monumentally boring.

With this in mind I did a little Rav-search and found Dr G's Memory Vest. This is another of Kirsten Kapur's patterns and I love it. Even better, Bruce loves it. I bought the pattern and read it through and I was all ready to go.

Then I went to my yarn containment system and pulled out the old vest in anticipation on a frog fest. I was stoked right up until I pulled it out and saw that I was nearly half way done. Yup the back of this sucker is just inches from completion. I finished the arm decreases and everything. how can I frog half a vest?

I am resigned to finishing this Damned Vest now. At least the front will be more interesting since there will be a deep "V" to contend with. If I put my mind to it I can probably bang it out with in a month or so. There's just one thing holding me back now. The needles I need to use are currently tied up with Hubbo's Entrelac scarf. I 'm sure this vest is cursed.