A Beyond-Basic Vest to Knit for Fall or Spring

I’m sure I’ve written about this before, but it bears repeating that in the past couple of years I have really come to appreciate the value of a good vest. Sometimes you want a little extra warmth on your body but you don’t necessarily need full sleeves. And sometimes your sweater isn’t quite cutting it so you can add a vest to bring a little more warmth to your outfit.

You can wear them over a T-shirt, a long-sleeved shirt, or a dress, and depending on the style sometimes you can even wear them tank top style without any shirt underneath. Totally up to you.

This vest is the Hlumelo Vest from Noma Ndlovu and it’s a deep V-neck worked in DK weight yarn. The horizontal stripes of the gridded colorwork pattern are knit as you go, while the vertical columns are purled to show placement for surface crochet chains that are worked after the knitting is done.

I know that sounds kind of weird but it’s a much easier way to add vertical colorwork that’s only one stitch wide. Otherwise, you’d have some very funky intarsia going on and lots more ends to weave in.

It’s worked from the top down and available in nine sizes, ranging from a chest measurement of 36.5 inches to 62.5 inches. It is recommended that the vest be worn with 2 to 8 inches of positive ease.

You can download the pattern from Ravelry.

Speaking of my obsession with vests, you can read more about that and get a super simple free vest knitting pattern here. This striped vest I shared recently is also super cute and has stripes that vary in both color and texture. How cool is that?

Looking for more Vest patterns to knit? Check out these Vest Knitting patterns on Etsy and these designs on the Sirdar website.

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I happen to live in the Northern Hemisphere, but I know we have a lot of Southern Hemisphere friends, too, who are heading into the cooler months as we are warming up. Whichever one of the seasons you’re in, you might want to stitch up this sweet little hood.

This pattern by saskie&co is called snug hood and it uses two colors of yarn to make a close-fitting pixie style hood (almost a balaclava but it doesn’t cover your face, though there is a neck covering portion to keep you a little warmer). You can use the fingering weight wool and mohair held together that are called for in the pattern, or use a single strand of DK weight yarn.

The neck portion and the edging around the face are worked in ribbing in a single color, while the body of the hat includes an allover colorwork flower pattern. The project is worked both flat and in the round and there is colorwork that is knit flat, which means you’ll have to purl in colorwork (which some people don’t like; also, you can’t see what you’re doing as well on the back of the work).

The pattern comes in one size and the colorwork is charted. Testers noted this is a quick and easy project and a great way to learn some new skills (chart reading, working stranded colorwork flat) if you’ve never tried those things before. They noted the hood is cute, comfortable and warm, and a few said it didn’t take as much yarn as the pattern suggests, so bear that in mind if you’re trying to use stash.

Speaking of the pattern notes, check out all the cute color variations in the projects on Ravelry. From pink and red to blue and white to gray and cream, there are lots of great options to think about.

You can buy this pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: saskie&co]

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