See my vest!
When I first saw this pattern in the book, I was not that into it. First of all, this is my first real sweater vest. I haven’t ever owned or wore vests even though my style can be described as sometimes being on the preppy side (love those blouses). Also, I do not like u-necks; I’m a v-neck girl. My decision to make the vest came when I realized that the wool would be affordable, and the patterns in this book do seem fitted and relatively easy. With that in mind, I made a few mods to the vest to my style.
I lengthened the ribbed body by an inch, lowered the neck, did 3 repeats of the bust increases of 5, made the straps 11 sts instead of 14, used three needle BO instead of seaming, and I used 4.0mm needle (I didn’t have a 3.75 circ) to do 2 purl rounds on the edgings on the neck and the armholes. My gauge swatch was over by half a stitch, but it ended up still working out. I’m often between 34-36 in bust any way. In the end, I only used 2 full skeins of the Patons which means it was a cheap and relatively fast knit.
Even though it turned out okay, I won’t knit this again. The ribbing and the bust increases were fine, but I found out that I sort of suck at reverse shaping and decreasing. The straps are not symmetrical at all, and I ran into problems with the back shaping and the edgings too. It was not as fun towards the end, and I rather try knitting other vests. I think I will wear this, but not sure how often.
It also was my first time wash blocking. I bought some Eucalan in Lavender to wash this and future knits. After I soaked it, I put it in a pillowcase and ran it through the Delicates Spin cycle and that saved a lot of time in drying. I love Eucalan, and I wish I had bought it earlier. My knits came out soft and smelling wonderful.
Back-to-School U-Neck Vest, started January 24th, 2008, finished February 15th, 2008 
Pattern: Back-to-School U-Neck Vest by Stefanie Japel from Fitted Knits
Size 34″
Yarn: Patons Classics Merino Wool (100% merino wool – 223yds/204m – 100g) in #00231 Natural Chestnut – 2 balls
Needles: 4.5mm/US#7 100cm/40″ bamboo circs (Magic Looping as usual) and 4.0mm/#6 16″ circ for edgings
Modifications: Lengthened ribbing, narrowed straps, three needle BO for straps, lowered neckline, 2 purl rounds for edging
Lessons Learned: Three needle BO, LLI and RLI, and some general shaping.
Cost of Project: $12 for yarn.
Would I knit it again? No.