I recently finished knitting the Friday Slipover by Petite Knit. Here’s the journey from start to finish.
A quick overview
Pattern: Friday Slipover by Petite Knit
Yarn: Spinning Yarns Weaving Tales Dooish Worsted 100% Irish Wool
When I first started knitting, I asked my partner if she wanted me to make her a sweater. The answer was a resounding “no”.
Fast-forward a year and I was watching a knitting podcast that highlighted a cabled vest. I heard a voice behind me “if you REALLY want to make me something, I wouldn’t say no to a vest.” I jumped on the opportunity immediately before she had the chance to change her mind.
The same afternoon, I made a quick list of pattern requirements:
A simple design that will be a wardrobe staple
A design that works for a variety of yarn types and weights
A trusted designer that I know will provide an easy to read pattern and reliable end product
I found a number of vests that fit these requirements on Ravelry and gave them all to my partner to choose. She ended up choosing the Friday Slipover by Petite Knit, which is a simple round-necked vest with an allover broken rib design and ribbed collar and arm holes.
With the pattern choice locked in, I dragged my partner along to my favourite yarn store in Melbourne - Maker Maker. I asked her to touch and look at everything and choose something that she liked. Initially, she wanted to choose the cheapest yarn, and it was challenging to convince her otherwise.
Finally, she picked Spinning Yarn Weaving Tales’ Dooish yarn in the Treacle colourway. The store said it would work up into anywhere from a DK to worested weight, depending on needle size and the desired drape. It is a 100% Irish wool yarn that has tweed flecks through it. It is unwashed, so it still smells like sheep.
I purchased 300g initially, based on the size my partner required and some guessing regarding the slight gauge difference to the pattern. However, I ended up needing 400g and I had basically nothing left over. Thankfully the store still had the same dye lot in stock when I needed more.
The Process
Upon first swatching the yarn, I was worried. The fabric felt hard, not drapey, and uncomfortable. However, after blocking it thankfully relaxed a lot and became soft and had a bit of drape. I wanted the piece to be slightly stiffer as I think a structured vest really suits my partner’s style.
In terms of the change to size after blocking, my swatch grew significantly in width and shrunk in length. This ended up being important to remember when deciding on the length of the final garment during pre-blocked try-ons.
The Friday Slipover begins with the back panel worked flat. While working this panel, I could tell that the stiff yarn was going to make it pretty hard to work with. My fingers were getting a bit sore and I initially found it challenging to read my stitches with the dark colour. I had to take regular breaks to rest my hands.
The dark colour also became a challenge when it was time to pick up the stitches for the front panels. After making a couple of initial mistakes, I think my picked up stitches ended up looking quite clean.
Despite some issues with the yarn, I already knew that I would love the end fabric. The interaction of the tweed in the yarn and the broken rib stitch pattern brings a lot of visual interest to a simple and basic design.
After joining for the body and finishing the second ball of yarn, I moved on to the ribbing.
This was the first time I have picked up stitches for ribbing around a collar. It was not that difficult, and I think it ended up looking quite neat, but I picked up way less stitches than what is on the pattern, despite picking up at the recommended rate. It didn’t matter because all of the ribbing fits my partner well and looks good.
This was also my first time doing a folded collar. I think that it looks very neat and elegant and is something I think I will incorporate as a modification into future projects. I was initially a bit worried that it wouldn’t have enough stretch, but it ended up fitting perfectly, especially after blocking.
I did have a slight issue with the sleeve bind-off, but it was completely my fault! I was a bit concerned that the sewn Italian bind-off would break the yarn, as it is quite rustic and easy to pull apart. So, I decided to do a standard bind off in pattern. However, that bind-off was far far too tight. I pulled it out and did the recommended Italian bind-off. The yarn didn’t break, it looks great, and it fits well. I realised afterwards that I could have used Jeny’s Super Stretchy Bind-Off, which is what I ended up doing for the body.
The broken rib provides a lot of extra interest compared to knitting a body in endless stockinette. Halfway through, as my hands were starting to hurt quite a lot and I was running out of yarn, I realised that in the future, I would consider going up a needle size and down a vest size to loosen the fabric and make it easier to work with.
As I noted before, I decided to use Jeny’s Super Stretchy Bind-Off because I didn’t think that the yarn would survive a sewn bind off over so many stitches. I am really glad that I chose this bind off. It looks good and it sits very nicely with the ribbed bottom.
Finishing
As the swatch suggested, blocking really softened up the slipover. The fabric instantly becomes soft and flowy with the wool wash. I made sure to stretch out the arm-hole ribbing during the blocking process because my partner thought it was just a little too tight initially. This fabric has a lot of stretch while it is wet, so I was careful to only stretch the parts where it was required.
Ultimately, I loved this pattern and the finished product. I would highly recommend it to knitters of all stages. For beginners, it is an easy pattern to follow, with a reliable end product. For more advanced knitters, I think that there is a lot of room to do your own modifications and create a truly tailored garment (if I ever make this for myself, I’ll be adding in some waist shaping).
I made a vlog of the process, from start to finish. If you would like to check out the video, have a look here:
Thank you for joining me on this journey. Happy knitting!
Until next time,
Jane
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