A Budding Designer?

I have made several sweaters, hats, socks, and cardigans for Lydia over the past year, but the one project I haven't tried was a vest. I had just started designing a one-piece vest for Lydia when I came across designer Erika Flory's Mini Rej Vest on Ravelry. Coincidentally, her pattern incorporates several techniques that I had been hoping to include in my vest.  Flory's design is quick, easy, and versatile. It can be made for either a boy or a girl by reversing the buttonholes. It's knit in one piece with only the shoulder seams sewn up. Her pattern uses knit one, purl one ribbing throughout. I finished Flory's vest in about one week.

The vest I'm designing is still in the preliminary stages.  I've made sketches and jotted down ideas, but haven't really started testing it yet with yarn and needles. I'm a little nervous about jumping into the realm of knitting design.  In the past, knitting was just a hobby, something I worked on from time-to-time. However, as my skills improve and I learn new techniques, I feel the designer in me starting to emerge.

The toddler vest I am creating will be seamless, easy, and fast. The pattern will be worked sideways in one-piece rather than from the bottom-up or top-down like most patterns.  Knitters will cast on at the right front edge and work around to the back and eventually bind off at the left front edge. The pattern will be made using reverse stockinette stitch.

Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac and Shawls and Scarves: The Best of Knitter's Magazine were the first books to inspire me to design. Using Zimmermann's instructions as a guide, I expanded on her ideas and suggestions to create my own toddler version of the February Baby Sweater and a blanket based on the July Pi Shawl pattern.  The blanket is still a work in progress. 

Comments

[Jackie]

What a cute model!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!