I’ve throughly enjoyed Jean’s Nihon Vogue certificate program and  I’m sad that there is only one class left. I’d love to take the next year but it’s a huge time commitment that’s been difficult to justify.

Our seventh project is a crochet vest. Being a crochet novice, I opted to make a toddler sized one. Mine will fit an average four year old Japanese toddler.

We spent all day Saturday learning how to chart decrease stitches around the curved areas of the vest. While the body of the garment is worked in double crochet, the curved edges are made up of a variety of stitches (single, double or slip) depending on the size of stitch needed.

As you can see in the chart below each stitch is carefully charted onto the curved areas.  Unlike knitting, each row can have different types of decrease stitches.

It’s an interesting technique and to be honest very intimidating for a
crochet novice like me. I barely know the difference between half
double and double crochet.Here’s a closer view of the left armhole after I filled in all the stitches. This one isn’t quite finished. I still have to sew up the sides and add a single crochet edge to the neck, armholes and lower edge.

Gosh, as each week passes I never seem to accomplish as much as I had hoped.  This week I was aiming to have one or more garment pieces finished but have instead just finished drafting the pattern and casting on the first piece. At least I can say I’ve decided on the final details.

Most of the garment will be in plain old stockinette except for the ribbing and collar which will be in mistaken rib. All very easy to accomplish in a limited time frame. The collar is going to be the challenging part.

It’s so sad that this wonderful yarn has been discontinued. While knitting the stockinette swatch I started dreaming about incorporating cables into my design but gave up that effort a few days ago. The clock is ticking. It’s time to get started in earnest with our final class is only  six weeks away.

Really the one true difficulty I’ve have with this class is coming up with ideas. I’m perpetually wishing, “if I only had more time”.  Honestly I look forward to getting back to knitting on my own schedule, letting ideas evolve naturally.  Hey wait!  Come to think of it, most of my knitting ideas never really did evolve into full blown projects. Perhaps that’s because I had no deadlines. That’s partly true but also I didn’t have the pattern drafting skills that I have today.

This one is ready for the next class when we’ll finish sewing the band to  the neck.

Of course I still need to sew on the buttons.

It’s so hard to put it aside with so little to do. Oh well.While I’m still pondering my final project I finished the drawing assignment for the crochet project.

Jean asked us to trace the upper portion of the front and back onto tracing paper, add a grid and then draw stitches onto the grid near the armhole and neck.

My tracings look quite messy with all those smudge marks.

Can’t wait to see what she wants us to do with this.

My ideas for the final project are coming together after searching far and wide for inspiration. Time is running out so this week I need to start finalizing the pattern drafting and start knitting.

Now that my crochet is out of the way (sorry no pictures), it’s back to the v-neck cardigan.

Last weekend we learned how to sew the vertical button band to the garment. Let’s just say, it’s slightly more complicated than picking up stitches for a horizontal band.

Typically there are more rows on a vertical band than rows in the garment so, a few calculations were made before starting. We noted the amount of rows in each section of the band – lower body, upper body, behind the neck – and then compared this with the row count on the body. We then calculated the exact points at which an extra stitches are  taken up from  the band. You can see in the photo where I marked the take up points for the upper right side. The left side has already been sewn.

It’s so useful to know the math for such situations. That’s probably one of the most valuable things I’ve learned from this class.

Oh and I almost forgot, here’s the buttonholes. More of those nifty short row buttonholes but this time done on a vertical 1×1 rib band.

Thank goodness the weather cooperated today. I now have one of the sleeves knitted and washed.

Counting stitches and rows.

Charting stitches.

My swatch for a child sized vest.

It’s been a knitting marathon this weekend. The front two pieces of the v-neck cardigan are drying while I work on the vertical button band.

Sleeves are on the back burner until I finish the crochet swatch and draw patterns for the next two projects.

Nope, I haven’t picked up the crochet project yet but will soon. Nothing fancy with that one. Just a simple child size vest in double crochet.

Here’s what I’ve been thinking about for my final project.

Inspired by my co-worker’s sweater I’d like to make a notched collar jacket. My “napkin sketch” is below.

Since I won’t have much time to knit this project the body will most likely be in stockinette with 2×2 ribbing for the collar and lower edge. I recently bought Jo Sharp Silk Road DK that I’d like to use but I’m not sure if it might be too rustic for this design.

It will be interesting to see what Jean thinks about this idea.

Finally a full day of sunshine and blue skies.

This one was a joy to knit mostly because I encountered very few problems.  But, there are two things that bother me about the finished garment. First, my row gauge was off so it’s about 1.5cm too long (including the sleeves) and second, it seems to look totally different on me when I look at it in my bathroom mirror. This photo makes it look bulky on me.

KarenJo asked if I would demonstrate the buttonhole next time SKG has mini classes. Sure, I’ll do that if I’m available then.

Now it’s on to the v-neck cardigan. The back is finished and the right front is nearly half done. The button band on this one will be knit vertically and then sewn on.

Only two more weeks until our next class. As always, there’s so much to do and so little time.

Oh, those feet in the photo last week belong to Mittens, the one who can’t resist sitting on my knitting.

Can’t believe I fell for this mistake again.

I was nearly finished with the back of the v-neck cardigan and noticed a slight color difference between a fresh ball of yarn and the last one. I immediately scanned the piece under better lighting and sure enough, there was a noticeable change in shade farther down the knitted piece.  To confirm my suspicions I pulled out the ball bands from the already used yarn. Arraugh!!!, I had just used a rogue ball of yarn from a different dye lot!

On a happier note, Jean was in town this weekend so I stopped by to get help with the last for stitches of the round neck cardigan button bands. That’s done. Now I just have to sew on 10 buttons.