18 October 2012
This is now finished and I am very happy with it. It turned out to be a tunic since I knit much longer than the pattern and with thicker yarn and positive ease. Bamboo needles were the ONLY logical choice for this yarn: I knit with KnitPro cubics (4,5 mm) which were great. The neckline which I knit with smaller needles (3,5 mm) I had to rib three times because the KnitPro metal needles kept splitting the yarn and driving me crazy. With KnitPro symphony the knitting was OK again, whew.
The final weight of the vest is 300 g which is 3 skeins - way less than I anticipated :-) I am going to have some matching accessories… I think this yarn would be good for felting.

Notes:

The pattern tells to CO 140 and decrease to 120 (8 pattern repeats = 4 on front and 4 in the back). After reading other people’s notes and knitting a swatch, I decided to CO 180 and decrease to 150 (10 pattern repeats).
The pattern length before neckline amounts to 4 pattern repeats.

I started knitting on 80 cm long circular KnitPro cubics sized 4,5 mm. 3,5 inches of riband then started pattern. Started decrases after one full pattern repeat. Decreased 4 sts (176) on first row of second pattern repeat, then knit one row without decreases and D4 on row 3 and 4 (168), D4 on row 5 and 6 (160), D4 on row 8 (156) and row 10 (152). Finally D2 on row 12 (150 sts). Started knitting the decreased side diamonds in pattern as well.

On the last diamond before starting the collar, I decided to decrease more so the V-neck wouldn’t be slouchy or keep falling off my shoulders. I did this by decreasing 4-4-2-4-4 sts (leaving 132) on the sides on pattern rows 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14.

The neckline instructions were really unclear in the pattern notes but I figured it out by reading other people’s notes. Basically divide all stitches by 2 to get front and back. Then divide front stitches by 2 to get the center of the “V”. In my case 132/2=66/2=33.

I started a new pattern repeat for the front panels. Armhole increases are on rows 7, 9 and 11 (3 stitches). Bindoffs on row 15 (4 stitches). I decreased the neckline until there were 17 sts.