OhSewCrafty Blog

Here’s my newest project, Vivian by Ysolda Teague.  I’ve got about 12″ done on the body, and I’m not convinced that I have  enough yarn… I have the amount called for, but I think it will be close.  I’m using Plymouth Tweed in color #5319, dark ocean teal.  I love the yarn!  It’s a traditional tweed, but softer than some, and it makes a firm fabric that will be helpful in this jacket-type garment.  The yarn has a bit of veggie matter, but it wasn’t enough to really annoy me.  (I measure this sort of thing relative to Noro Kureyon, with which I knitted a sweater and meanwhile picked out enough twigs, straw, etc to build a small bird’s nest.  That got on my nerves!)  By the way, the true color is somewhere in between these two.  It’s practically impossible to get good photos in my condo at night, but as I never seem to be home during daylight hours, these will have to do.    

The first time I saw this pattern I noticed how the large central seed stitch panel in the back called attention to the model’s rear.  Depending on one’s body type, this may be the desired effect.  But for  someone like me, who wishes to minimize the junk in the trunk, it wasn’t going to work.  Nevertheless, I liked the pattern, so I decided to “make it work”.  Basically I reworked the back of the garment, so that the two large cable elements were more central, and there were three seed stitch panels, instead of one large central one.  I distributed the decrease rows evenly, so that some decreased the side panels, while others decreased the center.  By the time I got through all the decrease rows, my stitches were distributed as per pattern, and I followed along without further modification.   I’m really enjoying this project- it’s not exactly a quick knit, and it does require some concentration, but it’s fun.