Moon child

Here’s a knitting project that enjoyably occupied a large chunk of March lockdown: my slightly modified take on Laura Dalgaard’s Moon Child Vest pattern which I couldn’t resist once I’d clocked it on Instagram.

As you can see, compared to the original pattern I modified the chart a bit as I decided I wanted the larger planet to have the rings instead of the little one, because it’s cooler, no?. I basically redrew the chart with my modifications in a graphics program and followed that instead once I was done with the mountain part. I also removed the ‘craters’ from the ground area and shortened this area by several rows, although I still find the vest a bit too long overall, hence my attempt to French tuck it here. I also find the shoulders a little bit over-extended for my taste, I’d prefer them a little bit slimmer and not at all dropped over the shoulder point. I couldn’t adjust this as there’d have been no space for the intarsia details!

I was originally considering some extra intarsia design elements on the back but was almost out of the secondary yarns and quite intarsia-burnt-out after finishing the front so kept it plain. I used a hodgepodge of yarns: the body is Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed Aran in Midnight held together with a spool of fluffy British spun mohair I bought on eBay. The pink planet is Wool and the Gang Feeling Good in Mineral Pink (I wish I’d held this double for a bulkier finish) and the purple and cream are Rowan Kid Classic in Periwinkle and Feather held double. I only used one ball of everything except the tweed which used 3 or 4. It was my first time trying to make more complex yarn substitutions and I found it quite a minefield both to calculate required yardage and to know which yarn weights to blend to get the right hand-feel and gauge. But I really like how the main body choice here turned out, I’ll certainly experiment with more yarn pairings in the future.

The knitting process was certainly interesting and absorbing. The pattern didn’t provide any guidance on how to do the intarsia design (just a big chart) so I had to refresh my rusty colourwork skills. I used mostly true intarsia, which for many areas required 6-8 different strands to swap between which got a little hairy – literally. I had to gear myself up for each knitting session and lay out all the bobbins around me to avoid them getting tangled – definitely not a project I could multi-task and watch TV with.

For some of the areas where a detail didn’t cover many background stitches (like the edges of the moon and some of the mountain tips) I floated the navy yarns in the back with twists to avoid more switch-outs. I tried my best to keep good tension and sharp joins between the colours and in general I think it certainly looks a bit more neat and polished than some previous projects.

The back is surprisingly tidy! I used the tutorial here to ‘bury’ in the loose ends with a fast and bulk-free technique which I really liked.

The awkward length and shoulder width – as well as the design being quite statement-y – makes me find this a little bit hard to style, unlike my Holiday Slipover (of which I’ve just made a second) which I throw on top of anything. I picked colours that tone with my wardrobe so at least I have a lot of matching tops in pink, navy and cream to layer under. Nonetheless I’m proud of it and enjoyed making it a lot, and hope it gets some outings before warmer weather properly kicks off.

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