My Dayflower Summer Vest: Part 1

I have put aside knitting or even thinking of knitting doll clothes.  I should start sewing some, but would rather be knitting.

And so, I have begun, again, to try and knit a summer sweater with cotton yarn.  I have the yarn and it has been in my stash for several years, but I do not have a pattern in mind.  So I decided to knit some dishcloths and decide on one to begin.

This was the first one I knit in Hobby Lobby’s I Love This Cotton--Ivory and liked the overall stitch pattern.  But it was rather boring and I got a good picture of an error on the side of it--my mind just have wandered for a few rows.  Since I have more than one to knit I put this on reserve and started a more involved one.









Several years ago, probably when I bought my stash of cotton yarns,  I tried the Dayflower Pattern from BW2.311 and couldn’t do it even with copious notes.
I wrote myself a note to find a chart for it on the Web and I did.  It was slightly different though.

So, I made a chart in Excel and tried the stitch again.  I chose Hobby Lobby’s I Love This Cotton-Antique Cream to knit a sample.  That way I actually may end with something useful.

I was successful in following the chart--I used one I found on the Web which showed the No Stitches and that helped a lot--but I didn’t like the double stockinette borders--too hunky as my Mother would say--and thought I could eliminate one of the stitches.
I also didn’t care for the side panel stitch I chose so I knew I had to redo the thing and this attempt was frogged.

Changing the chart in Excel was easy and I found a way to quickly transfer it to my Word pattern.  I love discovering ways to make my craft easier.

And here is the result knit in Hobby Lobby’s I Love This Cotton-Banana.  I think it turned out especially nice, my chart was easy to follow and the side panels worked well in the combination.  The current plan is to center this design on the back of the sweater with Stockinette stitches for most of the body.









And so I had to knit another dishcloth.  This gives me an idea of how the front of my sweater might look.  I’ll just have to decide how many inserts I will want to include.  Not too shabby for a week’s work.

Miss M. grabbed these and asked if she could give them to her teachers.  Maybe next year after the sweater is finished, after all I may have to refer to them, one never knows.


Next step will be to knit a gauge swatch and create the pattern in Sweater Wizard.



And, finally, if anyone is interested I tried to knit one of these with some Lily's Sugar’n Cream cotton I thought I would never use for anything and I quickly stopped.  The Hobby Lobby cotton is so much softer and easier to work.