We interrupt our regularly scheduled knitting to bring you:

Hester

Please forgive the horrible photo.  It does not even begin to do justice to the pattern or the yarn.  As soon as I saw this vest I knew I had to make it.  The design and fit just seemed so perfect for me.  And the yarn has proven to be a good match.  I think I neglected to mention in my last post that this is an Elsebeth Lavold pattern.  As usual, it is long on design, but the pattern is less than clear in parts.  Not that it’s a badly written pattern – it’s not.  But if I were a beginner I would be a little mystified in parts.  As it is, I have enough experience to say, "Oh yes, that’s what she means!"  The confusion began with the sizes.  The sizes listed as Small (34.75) Medium (37) Large (39.5).  But nowhere is there any indication of what those measurements refer to.  Bust measurement, finished dimension of vest?  What??? And there are no diagrams of the finished garment to give you a hint.  I had to do my own calculations to come up with a finished garment size in order to figure out what size to knit.  So we’re going on a wing and a prayer here.  However, other than that small caveat, I really love this pattern and should all go well can see knitting it again and again.  I love the shirttail hem (done with short rows) and the waist shaping.  And the yarn is knitting up beautifully!  You can’t see the little flecks of brown and blue and the way the checkerboard gives an almost pearlescent effect.

I was also able to get a fairly decent shot of Ivy’s newborn set:

All of this knitting progress has been in part due to a road trip this week.  We had to take the Mini Cooper in for preventive maintenance and the nearest Mini dealer (the only one in Washington) is 2 1/2 hours away.  Add in an hour and a half wait there and the fact that hubby was driving and that translates into quite a bit of knitting time.  If the weather cooperates there’s a car show tomorrow that hubby wants to do which will also result in a lot of knitting time.

The latest buzz around knitting blogdom has been about Ravelry.  It’s still in the beta testing stage and newcomers are being invited slowly.  I got my invitation today after only about a two week wait.  It is WAY cool.  There is a section for keeping track of your projects, in progress and completed, plus ways to link to others who are working on the same project/yarn, etc.  You can even keep track of your stash!  I think it’s a great way to tap into the vast community of knitters out there.  Finding blogs to read of like-minded knitters is sometimes hit and miss and this is a way to connect to those who have the same interests.  Go check it out and get on the email list for an invite.  They are being sent out in the order received.  The only downside I can see with this is getting terribly distracted by all the content.  You can spend hours just browsing.  So, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go and do just that!