Friday Slipover V-neck

I've been very intrigued by all the sweater vests I've been seeing on instagram over the last couple years, but as someone with perpetually cold arms I was never really sure how they would work for me. I decided to just give in and knit one for myself! You can find my Ravelry page for this project here. 

Pattern

The pattern I chose was the Friday Slipover V-neck by PetiteKnit. I chose it mostly for its classic look, thinking that way I'd be most likely to wear it in regular life. I've had good success with PetiteKnit patterns (see here and here, for example), though this pattern had a couple of spots where it wasn't entirely clear what I supposed to do (for example, handling the marker at the bottom of the vneck when doing the neck ribbing). Because of that, I wouldn't recommend this pattern to a beginner. 

Yarn

I've always liked to buy yarn while visiting somewhere new as a souvenir, so for this sweater I visited Snarby Strikkestudio in Tromso, Norway while visiting both Tromso and later Lofoten. Even though you can get this yarn in the US, it was nice to buy it closer to its source :) 

I used Sadnes Garn Sunday and Sadnes Garn Tynn Silk Mohair. Together, these definitely have a more itchy feel, which is fine especially for something like a sweater vest. It is also quite warm. These were some of the recommended yarns for this pattern.

The mohair does SHED EVERYWHERE, especially while knitting. I've tended to have this problem more with natural/undyed mohair. So not the best to knit with while wearing black.  

Knitting

I actually knit this relatively (about 2.5 months) quickly given my track record with sweaters (though no sleeves definitely helped speed this along). The broken rib got a little repetitive toward the end as the row gauge is quite small, but I think the shape of this and the look of the fabric are really great. 

A few things that helped me:

1. Be very patient and careful when picking up the recommended stitches around the neckline and make sure you're not skipping too many rows when picking up.

2. I found the tubular bind off only necessary for the bottom hem. As I find that bind off kind of a pain, a regular bind off worked just fine for the neckline and armholes.

3. When doing a tubular bind off, there is no need to do it with the mohair strand as well and will look neater if that is left out. I also followed PetiteKnit's video, including doing two rows of double knitting before binding off. 

Final Thoughts

This was definitely an enjoyable knit and produced a very nice final product. Jury is still out as to how much I will actually wear a sweater vest. Taking these finished outfit photos actually helped me to better understand how to wear it, as I tried a couple of different outfits.