Culdesac Back Complete

Elsabeth Lavold Vest Back in Jaeger Matchmaker Merino

Is there anything as satisfying as pinning a well executed piece of knitting down onto a blocking board? Well, yes, there is that wearing the knitted piece part, but blocking really does make me inordinantly happy. Perhaps it is because I can finally see my knitting formed into what will be its final shape. Perhaps it is the joy of bonding with my SpaceBoard. Perhaps I am just fascinated with seeing how many shiny gold-headed rust-proof pins I can use to tack down my most recently captured butterfly.

I'm feeling particularly smug about the back of this vest because I just love the way the cables came out. The center cables are even and well formed, the knotwork pattern stands out on a field of reverse stockinette. I think for the first time ever I felt like I was "feeling" the cables. I almost didn't have to refer to the pattern, it just seemed obvious where to go with them.

In the past, the other Aran sweaters that I have made or attempted have been all over cable affairs a la Alice Starmore. Beautiful, but complicated. I've started several, but only ever finished one. I like this vest a great deal because it's beautiful and uncomplicated. The cabling keeps my brain active, but there are large areas that I can speed knit through, providing me a with a good, balanced project. I think that because the cable elements are isolated, they stand out more and thus make more of an impression on me.

Just a few notes about the pattern. So far so good. I think this pattern is fairly well written and easy to follow. That's not to say that you don't have to spend a little time thinking about it, but I haven't found any mistakes thus far. I would recommend a little something with regards to the armhole cables. Your life is a lot easier if the cables at the armholes and the cables at the center crossover at the same row. I started the armholes at the suggested place, but started the cable pattern two rows higher in order to match them all up. Obviously, the shift you would need to make is somewhat dependent on the size of the vest (I'm doing the smallest size), but it will never be more than 3 rows. By making that 2 row shift I didn't have to keep track of two different cable intervals. I'm generally lazy and the less counting I have to do the better. I think, in this case, it also adds to the visual quality of the vest and decreased the chances that I would make a mistake.

Given how much fun I am having with this vest, I am definitely looking forward to receiving Elsabeth Lavold's Viking Knits Collection, Book One from the ThreadBears. I can already tell that there will be some Silky Wool in my future.

So much fiber... so little time...