New Life for an Old Knit

I knit this vest for My Beloved 20 years ago. Fortunately I strayed from the usual acrylic blends of the day to a pure wool in order to get the oatmeal colour I thought the style deserved. I say fortunately because I think the natural colour and fiber is the reason the vest has survived as an oft worn item in his winter wardrobe while every other (acrylic) knit from that era has long since been donated to charity. Its a lovely and classic pattern from a Pingouin Magazine in which they featured a whole collection of vests.

As you can see the pattern features masses of seed stitch - the back being all seed stitch all the time Knitting the back was a memorable experience - worked up while bare boat sailing through the British Virgin Islands; pure wool + pure heat - 'can't look at this piece without thinking of that trip! The thing that excited me from the outset of the project was the prospect of using leather buttons. I love the contrast of wool and leather and I thought classic leather buttons were the perfect touch down the front of this vest. As it turns out though, after suffering silently for 20 years, My Beloved finally let me know that he wasn't quite so excited with the contrasty quality of the leather/wool pairing as I was. He requested new buttons - something that "blended in a bit more" and to his credit, he also pointed out that making the buttons less prominent would allow the "beautiful knitting" to really show off to its best advantage! (That man is pure salesman!) These are the buttons I came up with and recently substituted for the leather ones...

They definitely "blend" more...

My Beloved is very pleased with the result and while wearing the vest yesterday suggested the whole button switcharoo story should be blogged.

So now he has the buttons of his choice and a post to match. He's in danger of becoming spoiled!;)