Another vest off my needles

.. And blocked too.
Yarn: wagtail 60% mohair 40% merino 8 ply purchased during the Knit and Crochet Show, Oakland, CA.
Pattern: Knitty Petrol
Swatch Gauge (in garter-rib pattern): 16 stitches and 20 rows for a 4"x4" square
Pattern tweaking:

1. This is a bottom-up pattern and so, I started with 2x2 rib for the first 1" and then started with the garter rib pattern. This gives a stable base.

2. I studied Petrol and created guidelines out of the row by row pattern. I then customized everything from width and length of vest, shoulder width, width and depth of the neck and also the depth of the armhole. Ofcourse, before I began, I had with me all desired measurements obtained from the recipient of this vest. Some highlights follow:

2a. Width x stitch gauge = number of stitches to cast on. But take note, for the 2x2 rib, you need a multiple of 4 but the stitch pattern on the body needs a multiple of 7. So at the end of the 1" rib, make necessary adjustment to the number of stitches. I cast on 148 stitches for the rib and then decreased 1 to have 147 stitches for the garter rib pattern.

2b. The row at which to begin armhole decrease and neck decrease (in case of the front of vest) can be easily computed. But note that both armhole and neck will have additional 1" bands of 2x2 ribbing during the finishing.

2c. Some care taken while dividing stitches for the front and back will give an impressively symmetric geometry to the front of the vest. The trick is to get the tip of the V (of the neck) at the very center of either the vertical knit-bands or the 2-stitch 'troughs' caused by the 2-stitch purl. My earlier version of the same vest pattern had the tip of V in the center of the 5-stitch knit band. Now that was easy because 5 is an odd number and you mark the 3rd stitch for your V. Now since this vest could not achieve that (owing to the number of stitches in all), I had to make a stitch between the 2 purls and mark the new stitch as center of V. That worked out nicely. Just make sure you have as many stitches before this mark as after it for the front of the vest and that front and back of vest are nearly the same number of stitches. It's easy, really. The symmerty achieved is worth it.

3. Okay, my 3rd point here is about picking stitches for the ribbing on neck and armholes. I've been watching Knitty Gritty for a bit now and have learnt enough that you should not try and follow exact number of stitches to be picked. This time, I marked on the edge, once every 2 inches and picked 8 stitches for every 2 inches. (My gauge gave 4 stitches per inch). This method removes the guess-work out of picking stitches, regardless of the shape of edge!

4. And finally blocking. The garment is not complete unless it's blocked. Just block it and bask in praises for the super-professional look of your newly knitted creation. Click here if you want to learn more on blocking.

Now, the pictures:

Back done, front being worked on:

Being blocked:

And, voila!