Boogie Time!

It's the Boogie vest from knitty.com.

















Here's how it looks on:


I blocked it, but need to press out the armholes a bit. As I altered the pattern by adding ribbing on the neck and armholes, I probably should have made the shoulders narrower, but it doesn't bug me enough to frog.














Close up of neck and cool cabling:

Yarn: Purchased in Ireland in 2005, with no labels whatsoever. It was a quite a feat to find wool there, in spite of the thousands of sheep I saw grazing. I found this in a clothing store, by asking the salesclerk if she knew where I could buy some wool (when I said "yarn", she had no clue). She dug around in the back and came up with two hanks of this -- charcoal/brown, a tad scratchy, and heavy worsted weight. It knit up at 4 sts to 1" on size 10s.

Pattern: Boogie Vest, knitty archives.

Modifications: Ribbing on neck and armholes; knit on circulars in the round until armhole length -- then back and forth. For the first time I used EZ's "phoney seams" -- dropping a stitch down to the ribbing, gooking up 2 of every 3 stitches. I like it -- not just they way it looks, but it helps the vest fold.

Finishing: Because of the scratch factor, I soaked it for a bit in warm water with hair conditioner. Softened it up just fine.

And more ... This is a baby hat, from Cascade Superwash 220. My own pattern, and the precurser to a sweater. A lawyer-pal is having a girl in April, so the needles starting talkin'.













But, this is what is interesting: See the top section of yellow? I was knitting in the round, and decided to alternate colors, and purl all the yellow stitches. I kept the yarn in front (yellow in the right hand, pinkish in the left with that yarn in back) and got this cool pattern! Don't really know what it is, but I like it! I'm going to do a few rows on the body of the sweater. If anyone has a name for this, please let me know.








On another note -- just got a new desktop for work, which came with Windows Vista. Does it drive anyone else crazy? Why can't things that work perfectly well just stay the same? I don't want to have to learn something new each time I upgrade. Maybe it's a sign of aging, but it makes me mad. Arghh -- I guess that's my bitch for the day. Well, maybe the first bitching -- it's only 10:30. :)