Finished the vest!

[afuna]

I finished seaming together the vest for my grandpa today (SHINING MOMENT OF HAPPINESS)

And then I realized that I forgot to block the pieces before doing the edgings and the seaming. (OH CRAP)

I am hoping that it will still be okay. It's a bit, er, oddly misshapen when it just hangs loosely or when I put it on, but the flaws aren't as noticeable when I get my dad (who is similar to my grandpa in build) to model it.

Next vest I make I'm making for myself though. Then I can try it on and play with it and experiment and take accurate measurements and try it on all throughout and stuff >_>

Overall, though, I'm really happy. Even when it was just endless rows of stockinette, I was too busy enjoying the softness of the yarn to get bored. And now it's a garment! And the fabric hangs heavily and yet pleasingly from my hand! And it drapes! And it's super soft! And super warm!

I think I foresee more tops in the future :) I wasn't bored through any of it at all: the plain parts were soothing and suitable for mindless knitting, the shaping parts came at regular enough intervals to be interesting, but not so often that I couldn't have my bouts of mindless knitting, and it's just. I mean, it's just I mean it's a piece of clothing that I made from scratch, and it's like *flail* magic. Ridiculous woolly magic.

Now to improve my finishing skills :D

Comments

[synecdochic]

I get around a lack of finishing skills by just knitting everything in the round ;)

[afuna]

Heeheehee. Part of me is fascinated by buttons, and wants to match them up to her outfits, the funkier the better. The other, more lazy, part wants to never make another buttonhole or align buttons to said buttonhole ever again.

(And the actual act of sewing seams is fine by me; it's aligning everything that's not so fun!

...I may just follow your example and do everything in the round *g*)

[kerravonsen]

Oh, I hope it isn't too long before I have the same kind of thrill. I started reading my crochet book this week. I tried to follow the instructions for single crochet slip stitch, but the wool was so fine I couldn't see what I was doing, and I pulled the whole thing apart. I will try again later with really thick wool so the stitches are clearer and I can see it clearly. But, hey, I at least can do a chain now!

If I don't forget how in the meantime. 8-(

[afuna]

Ooh, I wonder if cotton may work out better than wool for learning on? Because I love wool, but it is fuzzy and that makes the stitch definition a bit harder to make out than cotton would... (OTOH, wool is softer than cotton and much nicer on the hands *G*)

Anyway, congrats on making a chain, and good luck on the rest! I haven't gotten to the point of making any crocheted garments either, but that first knitted/crocheted garment feels really special. *_*

[kerravonsen]

Oh, I'm sorry, I was misleading; it wasn't "wool" wool, it was acrylic yarn. It wasn't the texture so much as the thinness of it that made it hard to see the stitches. I started again with a single-ply very thick yarn and a much bigger hook, and my sister was down for the weekend, and she helped too. So now I've done a chain, and slip-stich, and single crochet... and my rows kept on getting smaller and smaller, so there's something I'm doing wrong with the turning, so I've unravelled what I did and am starting over again.

I have a tendency to make the tension too tight; I suspect it's due to my long experience with macrame, where one needs to tie the knots tight rather than loose, so something in me rebels against loose stitches, even though one needs the stitches to be loose enough for the hook to go through when doing the next row! Practice will presumably improve this.

[afuna]

Oooh all right *g* Sorry for leaping to conclusions! (And good luck -- turning is hard esp. at the very beginning; I didn't figure it out until someone pointed out what I'd done wrong *sheepish*)

[jeshyr]

"Ridiculous Woolly Magic" is such a cool description of knitting that I propose you need an icon showing things you have knitted and those words :)

*Congrats!!*

[afuna]

*giggles*

Oh that would be a neat thing! *ponders*

(thank you!)