Alberta (The Striped Vest Returns!)

I knit this vest last spring - it was a bona fide Frankenstein of harvested tweed from recycled thriftstore sweater wool and a gaggle of handspun Shetland that I had no idea what to do with. It's gotten a lot of wear this year and the folks at Wild Fibers Magazine asked me if I'd write up the pattern for their 5th Anniversary Issue - which I was happy to do!


I took the vest along on my trip to Portland over the holidays for a proper photo shoot and formal pattern-writing session. Alberta is named after the PDX neighborhood of the same name - the place I call home whenever in Portland.


The pattern [Ravelry Link] is written for worsted weight wool - 4.5 stitches to the inch - with no suggested retail yarn, due to the whole Frankenstein thing I mentioned above. I'd love to see what other juicy wools others knit this up in!


The vest is steeked (see the gorey details here & here) for both armholes and neck opening, which means no purling! And also fast knitting - this one just flew off the needles back in May.

As a heads up, a few typos squeaked their way past both me and the tech editor - I've listed the changes at the bottom of the post as well as on the pattern page on Ravelry. My apologies for this!


I'm off to Tampa for 5 days (my first time to Florida. Ever.) - and looking forward to a little sunshine! The most important item on my immediate agenda is the same one we all face the night before a flight: what knitting to bring and how much! As a rule I tend to bring more than I need - carrying an extra project is so worth the alternative - running out of knitting while away from home! Now that's a tragedy!


[Alberta Pattern Errata]
** third row below Begin Working Stripes should read: “Repeat last four rounds, establishing 2-row stripe motif…”
**Last line of Shape Armholes Section should read: Repeat last round until yoke measures 4” (4”, 4”, 4”, 4.5”)