Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Copycat Tweedy

Finally some knitting content to share!!

This is a long overdue gift destined for my lovely brother in law in New Zealand.
I promised him a vest about a year and a half ago.....he even paid for the yarn....and it's taken me until now to get it all together!

Initially I was going to design something myself and did even play around with some ideas... but I really wasn't feeling it.... of course it got put aside for other knitting as I tried to figure it out.......then it all became obvious.....I needed to make a copycat version of Brooklyn Tweed's Striped Vest! I sent Nick (the recipient) links to Jared's blog and he gave the thumbs up.

I literally finished this today and then logged on to flickr to see that Jared has now published a pattern for this- The Alberta Vest (Rav link)!! I obviously didn't have the pattern and referred to my handy knitting bibles (and Jared's Blog) to help me out. This is made to measure (jury is still out on that one)...and at a slightly different gauge.I went for Rowan Felted Tweed as my choice of yarn.....the colours were the most pleasing and there's a good range to choose from.
This was also my first time steeking (went for the well praised crochet steek) and will definitely not be my last...such fun! BTW when I was in Shetland and mentioned steeking at my Fair Isle knitting class I was met with a lot of blank faces....apparently it's not as common over there as I was led to believe....they're more likely to switch to knitting back and forth once they reach the armholes.

I'm really pleased with how this turned out and just hope that it fits Nick after his waiting so patiently for it...admittedly it is still Summer in New Zealand so he's not going to get a lot of wear out of it just yet!

7 comments:

Lise said...

The vest looks great. I'll go and ask my boyfriend if he wants one too. Love the colors too.

Kirsten said...

There must be something in the air. I'm currently knitting a striped vest for my son. I'm not steeking though, just old fashioned knitting back and forth after dividing for the armholes.

Yours look great. The felted tweed colors are fantastic.

Suvi said...

What a lovely vest! Good color combination too!

Beth Armstrong said...

I love it Gudrun and I know Nick will be 'stoked' as they say in NZ! He's been longing to see this and will be so excited to know it will be winging its way here soon. Not sure about NZ Summer, it's been raining for about a week and feeling pretty cool so he might just get to wear it sooner rather than later. We'll take some shots of the model and send to you! x

Journeying Five said...

looks absolutely great..i am developing a thing for vests, think i need to knit one soon.

Hilary said...

What a wonderful vest! Felted Tweed is so gorgeous, and I love the colors you chose. Your brother-in-law is sure to love it!

marit said...

Lucky Nick!
Thanks for the link to the steeking! I'd never heard of crochet steeking, but it sounds reasonable to me;-) I've only done Norwegian style, with the sewingmachine and all...a lot of sweaters actually. That's what I love about the internet community- always someone willing to share good ideas and better ways of doing stuff! Have a great weekend.