yarn nerves vest progress

The main body is knitted. That white basting stitch is the end of ball 1. The pink thread at, and dangling from the shoulder is basting thread (Cottontots from the hat a couple days ago). Just for the try-on. [For the record, dh thinks pics at this stage are ridiculous.] The shoulders are on holders of white wool and will be 3-needle bind-off'd later. I'm keeping my options/shoulders open for now.

I swam the vest in Eucalan wool wash (even though it's cotton) and warm water (warmer than I would use with wool) to shrink it. It's blocked and drying. Indications are that it reacted as might have been predicted by the swatch which is shown below with the yarn that is left. Which is 40.7 grams or 59.1 grams including the two swatches. Is it enough? We'll see. I have a plan in case it isn't. What I still need to knit are the bottom band and the armbands and the front/neckline band.

Stats prior to the shrink, all in inches:
21 3/4 overall length
10 sleeve depth
15 3/8 width

Stats wet and blocked:
20 3/4 length
9 1/2 sleeve depth
17 width

What is that square on the center back of picture 2, you might ask? It's 4 dpns marking off a 6 inch square. So I can pick it up and hold it to the light and rub my fingers along the row and do what I need to to get a good count. These are the count numbers prior to the swim and block:

29 stitches/6 inches which is 4.833 stitches per inch
39 rows/6 inches which is 6.5 rows per inch
for a ratio of .7435 -- very close to the expected ratio for stockinette.

More measuring and counting after the vest dries.

Why did I block it now, before knitting on the bands? Well, I expected the vertical shrinkage but was not sure how much. I'll be picking up and knitting on the bands, but they are "width-wise", so I needed to get at least some of the shrinkage "out of the way".

more later,
j