Fixed object

When my SO first brought me his injured Fibonacci vest, I thought he had snagged it on something. On further inspection, I realized that the damage occurred where the individual rounds of the button/neck/bottom band began and ended. Did I do a lazy job of weaving in ends? Did the fact I skipped blocking the vest allow the ends to work their way loose? Was this just too stressful a spot to begin and end the rounds (upper right shoulder)? No one - least of all me - knows.

I was slow to repair this, primarily because I was not sure how without completely removing the band, something I was prepared to do if necessary, but I really did not want it to be necessary. Eventually, I undid the bind off and tinked back two rounds (which saved me from having to remove buttons and redo button holes). Then I tied together the ends of rounds that were still intact, added a "patch" to the mostly still intact round, then reknit two rounds and the bind off. (Fortunately, I had made a note in Ravelry about the bind off, as I had done a yarn-over bind off around the bottom.) I carefully wove in the ends and blocked the thing to help weld those ends to the fabric.

Were I to knit this vest again - or if I had to remove the entire band - I would do one (or more) of the following:

• Knit the band in one color instead of changing colors each round
• Start the rounds at a less stressed spot, like somewhere around the bottom
• BE MORE CAREFUL

It's still cold here (-4 F when I got up this morning), so the vest is now doing its job of keeping my SO warm. He says it feels like a big hug.

Finishing an already finished object

Last March I deemed the Fibonacci Vest as complete, even though it lacked buttons. Not that we didn't search for buttons, but finding the perfect buttons proved elusive. Then summer came and meh, who cares about buttons on wool vests? With winter pressing down upon us, though, buttons once again seemed imperative. And we found some at Joann that satisfied that need.

Meanwhile, I *still* have not completed Tuckernuck. I got stuck on the set-in sleeves, then on the button band, and now on the button hole band. Plus a severe case of startitis hit (coinciding with the creeping crud - two weeks of misery) which led to some WIPs: a scarf, a pair of socks, and a hat, all requiring next to no brain power. I'm finally feeling better, so it's time to tuck Tuckernuck into bed.

I'm calling this one DONE

My SO doesn't usually ask for a specific handknit, but he saw this Fibonacci sweater-vest in Knit One Below and fell in love. The pattern called for detachable sleeves, but I knit it as a vest so as not to bring the curse of the boy friend sweater down upon our heads.

He picked out the 13 colors and the order of the colors. I created a spreadsheet to keep track of the colors and sequencing.

Knitting one below is not difficult, just tedious, as each row is basically knit twice. The result is a double knit fabric that is quite toasty despite its light weight. This vest was knit all of a piece - no seams except the special 3-needle bind off at the shoulders.

The toughest part was knitting the edging, as I could have used a much longer circular needle.

Either I did not understand the instructions for picking up stitches or the instructions were just plain wrong, as I knit the edging at least twice, if not three times before it was wearable. The only other major snafu I encountered was due to my inability to count: one front side was a row or two longer than the other, which I didn't discover until after seaming the shoulders. I'm glad I made the effort to correct it.

I started this project March, 2013, and just yesterday stitched up the armpits and wove in the last of the ends. What took me so long? Just me. My knitting MO is to knit and knit and knit some more, until I hit a snag (in this case, first the edging, then the armpits) and then the poor thing sits abandoned until I put on my big girl pants and finish it.

• Pattern: Fibonacci Sweater-Vest, from Knit One Below
• Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, in 13 tweedy colors; I ordered the full amount suggested in the pattern and have almost half of it leftover.
• Needles: US7
• Modifications: The sample in the book was knit in DK weight yarn, but we went with worsted; for the edging, I picked up one stitch for each row, one for each column; when binding off, I bound off in purl, but around the bottom did a YO bind off, still in purl, so as not to constrict the fabric.

Ordinarily, I don't consider a project done until it is blocked, but this one has sat on Mr. Manly so long that I am turning it over to my SO while winter still holds us in its icy grip. It also needs buttons, which will require some searching. In the meantime, I am considering this project FINISHED.