Psychic Income

Well, after working the fair isle vest to within an inch of the underarms I've frogged it completely, re-worked the chart, and started over. I try not to let Bill notice when this happens, since he seems to find it upsetting. I think it's the economist in him, the part that measures the world by its productivity. It's difficult for him to understand any activity that is as much about process as it is about product. I know there are some economists out there who do understand these things, but Bill apparently isn't one of them, although now and then he will acknowledge that I might be gaining "psychic income" (that's economist-speak for fun). I wanted to make some changes.

View of the now frogged vest.

On the positive side, here's what I learned:
1. My stitch and row gauge are dead on. I had a huge chunk of knitting to check it against and it's as perfect as it could possibly be.
2. The finished width fits Isabel like a glove. While it was off the needles I had her slip it over her head and wiggle into it. Waist shaping was subtle but just right.
3. I had, however, misjudged the body length. I will plan on knitting an extra inch before the underarms.
4. The second "flower" pattern in my design was making me unhappy. It was too stylized and too solid. In fact, it created the illusion of being larger than the first "flower", when it was actually smaller. I've since replaced it.
5. The colour changes in the Kauni yarn require some level of "management". Initially, I just started each ball as it came. The end result was a horrible patch in the tummy area where dark red was paired up with dark blue and the pattern disappeared into the gloom. This time around I'll start with bright red and dark blue and keep an eye on where things are headed. If necessary, I'll do some fancy splicing.
6. I think I want to have the dark blue at the hips.
7. It will make better sense to fudge a little on the placement of the waist shaping so that it can be done on the plain stocking stitch rounds between the stranded sections.
Back soon with results.