The Hester vest is finished!
Elsebeth Lavold’s patterns may be short on clarity, but they are certainly long on style. I love it. All that’s left are the buttons, but ironically the next time I’ll be able to get over to look for some is when I go to her class in October. I have the perfect buttons, but only have 5 and I need 7. Here’s a close up (albeit fuzzy – still haven’t mastered the macro setting) showing the lovely checkerboard pattern and a buttonhole that I’m rather proud of:
Thanks for the input on project packing. A common theme was "keep it simple". I’m going to do just that. Considering that I almost brushed my teeth with the hand soap yesterday, I think my brain is too fried to do anything else. So, I’ll be taking several choices for plain Jane socks – color will be my variety rather than pattern and the Cookie A pattern will stay at home for another time (like when school is done!). I will be taking some lovely butter soft acrylic that I found at my LYS and I’ll work on a baby afghan that will probably go to our local Pregnancy Care Clinic. I love doing baby afghans. They’re small and portable and once the pattern is learned, they are mindless – no shaping!
Construction continues. This was the view at the end of our driveway one day this week:
I wonder how that guy would feel to know that he’s the star of a knitting blog!? Needless to say, I didn’t go home for lunch that day and no mail was delivered. However, we’re hoping that’s the end of the worst of it. Once that big hole was filled in, they haven’t been back for almost a week. But I think all that’s left in our area is sidewalks and curbs (nice!!) and the final paving.
One week to go! Four days of work. I am SO ready. Well, ready in the psychological sense. Still lots to finish up here and packing to do. If I really buckle down today and tomorrow with school, I won’t have to do too much while I’m in Orlando. So it’s off to study and the next post should come to you from sunny Florida.
missouristar 
Hester looks very nice. If you’re willing to experiment with button buying on the web, there are a lot of nice sources. Morehouse Farms sells bone buttons that would look nice on it, and the web pictures are accurate (I’ve bought some in kits for children, and they look just like the photos).
Are you taking a class with Lavold? That is terrific. It seems to me that you West Coast people have many more options for this kind of session that we do in the East.
After two years of tearing up one of our main streets to replace the aging water pipes, my local public works people are finally getting to the paving, and it looks great. The dig wasn’t as extensive as it seems in your photos, but it has been tremendously annoying. But the new sidewalks look good, and I suspect after a short time, that I’ll forget about the annoyance, noise, and dirt.
The vest is beautiful! Congratulations on such a fine job. I like that you called it the Hester Vest. I sure hope they are over the worst of your construction. Hope you are having a good weekend.
The vest is lovely Dorothy! It looks so “professional” the knitting is stunning!
Your vest is beautiful – I love the curved bottom edge!
Please let’s see a modeled shot of that pretty vest – but no hurry. People with fried brains need to relax before going on long trips to welcome a new granddaughter into the world.
Is Abby feeling OK? Is it likely the baby is going to be on schedule? We will get pictures, right?