Yarn: Caron Simple Soft
Stitch Pattern: Textures Rib.
I’m so very thankful that I had finished the vest that I was working on. It was supposed to be a birthday gift for my nephew, he turned 4, but so many things happened. I was going through the last stages of my pregnancy, and eventually gave birth on Labor Day. So, this is extremely late, but its late with good reasons!
The pattern I decided to work with was a textured rib. I was flipping through my pattern book, and this texture seemed so right for the vest and the color. The purl side is the right side of the project, and I truly love the texture that this simple pattern gives.
Since this is my second attempt at knitting a V-neck line, I wanted to go for a simple stitch, but not too simple. Stockinette would look lovely as a vest, but I wanted to make it different for a four year old.
I will admit that this vest did give me problems. I choose a 2×2 ribbing (to match the bottom hem), however I also expected to have a mitered V neck like 1×1 ribbing. I don’t know what I was thinking, but what came to mind was all those pretty pictures of the V-neck having that center stitch. That does work (assuming you’re using a 1×1 ribbing), but that didn’t work for the rib option that I picked.
It’s funny, since in the process, Ive started to second guess myself. Then I frantically searched YouTube to make sure it’s not all in my head. Yeah—that was fun 🙃. Oh, if anyone is interested in looking a great video on how to make a mitered V-Neck, this video is a good resource.
I ripped out the neck line so many times, all because my expectations were off. When I finally did *look* at my work, and see what was actually there—it wasn’t a bad job after all.
That separation of expectations and reality can cause so many issues. It’s like we have in our mind’s eye what we expect and hope the project will look like. Do it, and be slightly disappointed. To everyone else the project came out wonderful, but to you, you see all the mistakes. You notice everything you could have done better.
There are times when I just have to learn to love the process. It’s all learning for me. I don’t have *that* much experience, but I really love the process. My honest true goal is to learn every step of the way and enjoy the full process. Like when I learned to not have the ribbing stick straight out for the arm.
In the meantime, I’m going to do (silly) things like rip out a perfectly okay neckline, then laugh about it later. I hope that he likes the present. My own sons are eyeing another sweater and vest, so we’ll see what’s next.
