How to Design a Vest Knitting Pattern

I talked the other day about how much I am enjoying vests lately. Another reason I’m liking them is that they give me an excuse to knit something sweater adjacent without actually knitting sweaters, since I have about 24 knit sweaters and don’t really need more right now.

I recently designed a completely basic, bulky V-neck sweater worked in two pieces from the bottom up as a way to teach people how to design a basic garment for themselves.

This vest fulfilled a dream of mine because I’ve always wanted to make something with Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick & Quick‘s Hudson Bay colorway, and I happened to be at my local Joann (before all the bankruptcy sales started) and there were exactly three skeins of this colorway, all of the same dye lot, so I figured that was a sign that I needed to take them and make something.

Three skeins isn’t a huge amount of yardage (about 318 yards) so I thought a vest would be a great choice. And it worked out perfectly that I could make the vest I wanted in the right size for me and used almost exactly all the yarn (I think I have about 2 yards left). And that was with only doing a round of single crochet around the neckline and slip stitches around the armholes because I didn’t have enough yarn to do ribbing.

I love it just as it is, though, and the process the post walks you through could be used to make a vest of any size and in any gauge that you want. But to be honest I kind of want to knit another one exactly the same in a different colorway, and maybe with some ribbing next time.

If you’d like to knit your own vest or just see how I made mine, check out the post over at Our Daily Craft. I think this is a great way to learn the basics of designing on a small scale and an easy way to build knitting confidence.

[Photo: Our Daily Craft]

Twist Your Stitches for a Fun Vest Knitting Pattern

Knit a Vest with Cabled Details

A Beyond-Basic Vest to Knit for Fall or Spring

A few years ago I wrote a post that was full of patterns for knit mushrooms, but I don’t think I ever did a post that was knitting patterns with mushrooms on them, so today’s the day.

I love the Fungi Beanie from Jacki Bean, which calls for worsted weight yarn and uses duplicate stitch to add the mushrooms and other details. I think the colors she used for the design are tonal/multicolor so it doesn’t use as many colors as it looks like, but you can use whatever red, green, brown and white yarn you have in your stash for those details.

How about some mushroom socks? The Magic Toadstool sock form Stone Knits includes a ring of mushrooms around the leg, contrasting heel and toe and a little more colorwork at the toe for extra cuteness. As shown it uses four colors and comes in three sizes.

Or there’s the Fairy Ring Socks from Katie Green, which have mushrooms of two sizes on the legs, plus a bit of wavy grass. They have a contrasting cuff, heel and toe and some colorwork flecks in the body of the sock as well. This one is available in eight sizes to fit everyone from a baby to an XL adult.

This trippy cowl from Hunt Hand Knits looks like a lot of fun to knit. The Fungus Among Us Cowl is shown using four colors of DK weight yarn, though you can do it with as few as two if you’d rather.

Stitch some mushroom mittens with this cute pattern from Holly C Watson. This design uses three colors, and it’s shown with a self-striping yarn on the mushroom caps, which makes the colors change without you having to do any work. The pattern is charted but it’s a pretty easy repeat. The mittens are one size.

If you don’t feel like knitting mushrooms but still want to give your project a touch of the forest, the Toadstools Cardigan from Julie Taylor may be what you’re looking for. It’s stitched as a plain cardigan worked in DK weight yarn and sized for newborns up to 4 years old. The mushrooms are added with embroidery and the pattern includes the design, which you can trace onto water soluble stabilizer to stitch the mushrooms onto your sweater. Or anything else you want. You can find this pattern on Ravelry.

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