musings of a male knitter

Image of Boardwalk Vest from Love of Knitting website

The summer issue of Love of Knitting has my vest pattern available free as their web bonus.  Here’s two other images that show the diamond pattern more clearly.

Close up of Diamonds

Full Frontal View of Boardwalk Vest

I wanted a summer vest that looked good with a t-shirt and jeans or could be worn as dressy casual on a summer’s evening to an outdoor restaurant.  Early on, I knew I wanted it to be open in the front and made with Cotton Classic Lite by Tahki Stacy Charles Yarns. This is a lovely yarn with which to knit, and the garment weight is perfect for summer layering.  The yarn would be great in a summer top, such as a tank or t-shirt.  The diamond stitch pattern came from Barbara Walker’s Charted Knitting Designs: A Third Treasury of Knitting Patterns, but I altered it so that the diamonds at the top of the front panels move off at a slant in mirror image from each other.  I love I-cord edging, and worked a 3 stitch I-cord all along the vest edges.  The vest front edges did decide to curl inward, so you can’t see the I-cord edge there, but I still liked the look in the front.  This vest was designed with standard ease, and length, and the pattern sizes are written that way which go from small (44″ chest, finished size) to 3x (54″ chest, finished size).  I’m thinking about working up a version that is cropped, and has shorter armholes, with a narrow decorative rib around the vest front to make it more pronounced and lay flat.  It will be interesting to see if the front panels will accommodate those size changes, or if I’ll have to rewrite the diamond pattern stitch a bit.  I suspect the last upper diamond near the armhole will have to be removed.

Don’t be alarmed by the length of the pattern.  Because the regular diamond stitch pattern repeat had to be altered on both tops of the front panel, it required a lot of lines to be written out.  But it’s all pretty easy knitting, and the lines are all spelled out stitch by stitch for you!  I hope you enjoy knitting and wearing this vest!