6 Oct - finally decided to get the scissors out and sort out the underarm. Very pleased with the result. I might well knit this pattern again but I would make some significant changes.

16 Mar
Finished knitting the body and did a moss stitch band at the bottom rather than garter stitch. Very pleased with it except that the armhole is exceedingly tight - and that’s with me adding in the extra stitches underarm. I’ve rechecked measurements and stitch counts against the pattern and can now only conclude that the pattern has been sized up from small without taking into account that armholes need sizing up separately. I’ve put it to one side while I consider options - I don’t want to have to rip back the entire body section, so I’m thinking in terms of cutting down mid underarm into the body and either finishing it off as a slit or knitting in a gusset - either way I’m not impressed with the pattern sizing. I’d assumed since it was from a large professional company that their sizing up would take the reality of arms into account so didn’t do the pre-knitting measurement checks I sometimes do on patterns from designers I don’t know.
Another option is to machine stitch round a nice underarm curve then cut out the section and finish off the edge. Fortunately having knitted a firm fabric in a woollen spun yarn all these options are feasible.

I still love the cable on the circular yoke, but if I were to knit this pattern again I’d make some significant alterations, including adding more short rows to the lower garter stitch section of the yoke and doing a proper underarm shaping rather than just casting on a dozen stitches as the pattern instructs.

4 Mar
Today was the day of sums working out how to balance the number of stitches to pick up around the lower edge of the yoke - and finding out what size needles to use to get the right tension for the Sheepfold Soay. Turned out to be 3.5mm which gives a lovely firm texture. This is going to be a very hard wearing waistcoat! The Soay is interesting to knit with. A very different feel to the Boreray. A much ‘softer’ yarn, and not just in feel. I like it very much though - except for the very dark colour which makes it much more fun to knit in natural daylight.

I included the underarm short row shaping from MeKos’ project which was very straightforward to follow & knit and will greatly improve the fit I feel.

I’m also doing the front bands in moss stitch (USA seed stitch) since I think it gives a nicer edge than garter stitch, and may finish the bottom of the waistcoat like this as well. I’ll be making it longer than the pattern so it keeps the small of my back warm, and haven’t yet decided whether to shape the sides…….

3 Mar
Finished yoke. Took just over 3 balls of Boreray. Very pleased with the yarn. Great cable definition & lovely firm fabric created. Very pleasant yarn to knit with.

26 Feb
Half way through yoke. Very impressed with the Boreray yarn

20 Feb
At last the answer to whether I’ve got enough yarn. First ball by chance covered the first 80 rows which is a complete repeat of both sets of counting together. Measuring this gave a top length of 17cm and a lower length of 40, which has about the same ratio as the final measurements together. Best of all I can now estimate that the entire yoke will take 3.63 balls, so just under the 4 I’ve got ☺

19 Feb
It’s knitting up very straightforwardly now - so pleased I’ve got the chart to follow! I’m having to knit very tightly to get the aran yarn to fit the DK pattern & gauge - I’m impressed with how the yarn is holding up to this tight knitting and lots of tugging. I’m using my Shetland knitting belt and dpns so I can really give the knitting some welly - it’s a very strong yarn!
Of course I’m a wee bit anxious about if I’ve got enough Boreray for the yoke - I’ll do some measuring when I’ve finished the first ball - I guess I could always put in a Soay section for the middle back if needed. Trouble with one-off rare breed yarns is that I can’t just buy some more!

17 Feb
It’s taken a long time to find the pattern to use for this special, irreplaceable Boreray and the Soay to go with it.

Finally I’ve settled on this pattern which has the features I want, although I was put off by some of the comments about difficulties with the way the pattern is written.

I’ve finally bitten the bullet and my solution to the problems of trying to match a 16 row repeat to a 10 row repeat, one given in a chart and one a short paragraph, was to create a chart containing all the information for the 80 rows it takes for both repeats to come together again.

It’s taken all afternoon and lots of checking, but I’m now confident I’ll be able to carry on with knitting the curved yoke without the mistakes and frogging other people have had to endure.

PM me if you have already downloaded a copy of this pattern from the Drops website, and would like a copy of my chart. All I’ll suggest is perhaps a donation through the link from the p/hop Ravelry Group if you find the chart helpful.