Pattern: Stillhouse Vest by Thea Colman
Yarn: TFA Grey Label in Graphite (Etsy update tomorrow! Stay tuned!)
Ravelry project page here.
Just over a month ago Thea posted a teaser image of this vest in her Instagram feed. I didn't have any of the details, but I instantly knew that I loved it. I sent Thea a friendly message on Ravelry letting her know how much I liked the design in progress and she very generously offered to send it to me for test knitting! To say that I was excited would be an understatement. Chris had to sit me down and have a chat with me about how many times I was allowed to say "turtleneck vest" in a day.
The lush cables on this vest speak for themselves. Thea clearly has a brilliant mind for charting cables. My turtleneck ended up being more of a cowl because I picked up more stitches around the neck opening than the pattern specified and then decided to just go with it thinking that when it comes to chunky turtleneck vests the bigger the better, right? I'm not sure that I prefer my cowl version to the silhouette of the original design, in fact, I'm actually considering re-knitting the neck with fewer stitches to give me a slimmer turtleneck, but lets be realistic, that isn't happening any time soon.
I'm thrilled with how the Grey Label Chunky yarn looks in this vest. It took me forever to pick a colourway. I was pretty sure I wanted something neutral, but we have so many interesting neutrals in our line now that narrowing down the options was not easy! I settled on our Graphite colourway and am really happy with it. I think this is the first time I've knit with Graphite and I have to say, it's kind of the perfect grey. It's not dark, not light, not blue... it's just grey.
A chunky wool/alpaca garment is sure to be awfully warm, which is why the vest approach is such a clever one. Make no mistake, this vest is warm, but with the looser, more breathable cowl (accident though it was) and the fact that it has no sleeves, it's totally wearable. I've been wearing it outdoors mostly, like how I'd wear a down vest on crisp fall days. I wasn't sure how I'd style it but as an outer layer it's seen more use than I had expected. I've heard from a fellow knitter who plans on making hers tunic length to wear over leggings and I think that's a brilliant idea as well. I wish that I had followed the pattern and knit mine an inch or two shorter. Chunky knits basically knit themselves and I got carried away with that beautiful cable and started the armholes about an 1.5" too late. I can certainly live with it, but the pattern suggests a more cropped fit to keep it from looking too slouchy, and I agree. I'd be happier if more of my shirt tails were peaking out the bottom.
This final image is funny. The day we took the FO shots was one of those perfect fall days. There were golden leaves all around us. I bent down to pick up a leaf to add a little interest to the shots and ended up with the most vibrant green, summery looking leaf on the entire block! Silly.
So... now you all want to know when and where you can buy some Grey Label yarn to knit yourself your very own Stillhouse Vest, right? The answer: Tomorrow in my Etsy shop! I've got a very big Etsy update planned featuring 30 colourways of Grey Label chunky. I'll have at least 1 or 2 sweater quantities of every colourway and will be replenishing stock as levels drop so it should not be a mad dash, I'm hoping to have chunky yarn listed and available for the next couple of days at least. It will probably take a good two weeks to process the orders but I'm hoping that many of you will able to nab the chunky yarn you're looking for. I'll be back tomorrow morning with a reminder, a direct link to the shop and a glorious collage of all the featured colourways.