Orange you glad it’s a Kimono?

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Vogue Holiday 2008, Eyelet Front Vest

Oh, did I ever love knitting this. The Mirasol Miski baby llama yarn is the softest, drapiest bit of intensely coloured heaven I’ve ever had the pleasure of knitting with. (The yarn does shed a bit. Nothing horrid, but it does.)

The construction was intriguing, with each front being knit from the middle out and having a triangular piece jutting out at the top that wrapped around and over the shoulder to become the sleeve. The back was knit bottom-up.

The way the sloped bind-off is written out, both as a stitch pattern and then in the pattern, is confusing. Two pieces of the puzzle in different locations and seeming to contradict each other a bit. It’s intuitive once you puzzle it out, though. Very nice, smooth bind off edge. I will definitely be using it again.

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back view

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The yarn substitution made this into a slightly different top than I expected. The llama trades bounce and memory in order to get that drape. After it knit up, it was also clearly affected by a different row gauge. The sweet little cap sleeves were missing and instead there were T shirt length sleeves with huge armholes.

It sat for a month while I thought about it.

Then I used more embroidery thread (my preferred way to seam since it really reduces bulk) to extend the side seam higher into the armhole and that tightened things up considerably.  You can still see the excess fabric in the armpits, but it’s much better now.

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I attached a small button to one of the points for a closure – no need to do a buttonhole with stitches this size.

Wearing it yesterday I realized that it’s more kimono-like than top-like. Now that I’ve had a chance to adjust to the reality of the project and get the original out of my mind, that seems like an OK thing. After all, I grabbed a book on knitted kimonos the last time I was in the library.

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I envision this making tank tops and sundresses into 3 season garments for chilly little me.

PS. I got a new haircut a few weeks ago.  Shorter, more layering.  I find it pretty darn flattering and so easy to manage.  Which is good because I am willing to spend about 4 minutes a day on my hair, including the shower and brushing.

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