Purple Progress

Well, Bets, since you asked......

I've finished the last of the vest swatches (I think).



The top and bottom of the cable panel need some tweaking. I have some ideas worked out on paper, may or may not swatch them before starting the fronts, but I have enough info to start in on the back.

I've measured another vest that I like and added an inch to the circumference (because the other one tends to gap just a little bit across the chest) and about an inch to the length (because the other one falls just a bit short of the top of some of my jeans).

I've measured my gauge (though why, oh why, does my gauge always seem to change between the time I swatch and the time I start knitting on the real thing?) And I've plugged my numbers into "Knitwear Sweater Design 2.50". I like this program because it will give me a schematic with a superimposed stitch grid of the garment piece(s). This isn't exactly a stitch by stitch graph (for one thing, decrease angles are sort of averaged), but it gives me a good starting point. I'll need to make changes to allow for the fact that the gauge of the cable panel is different than that of the main patten stitch. And I'll take a red pencil to the neckline, to fit it more precisely to the panel. But I've got enough info to cast on for the back, and I'll twiddle with the graphs while I work on it.