Cabled Gilet.

Remember this?  I showed the lower back of this in my last post.

After about six inches, I realised that the piece was too wide for me, so I cast off some stitches at each side.  I was making it up as I went along.  I worked the rest of the back.  as I got near the neckline I realised that it would be good if the rope cable fitted into the shoulder, so I shifted the inside ones over by a couple of stitches to make this happen.

On to the fronts.  I knitted these both together.  Only when I was blocking the pieces did I notice that one of the cables had been mis-twisted pretty near the end.  This was an easy one:  I just raveled it back and reknit it.  Less easy to solve was the pronounced stocking stitch curl on the front edges.

Now I have seen people stitch ribbon to the fronts to give stability to an edge, but I have never done it before.  But I do have a hoard of antique textiles.  In it I found this: I had no idea it was there.  It was not very firm, so I cut a narrow strip of linen to go under it.  There was literally just enough to reinforce the two front edges.

The lower edges had started with ribbing, but this was pulling in so I took the ribbing off and knitted on applied i-cord.  I made the flaps from the back into little vents at each side.  Then I applied i-cord to the armholes and neck edging.  It took a little time but looks really neat.

Then, for the fastenings, I persuaded my husband to turn up some beechwood toggles.  Another length of applied i-cord up the front, incorporating buttonholes, and it was done.

I love it.  It's a great fit and a really wearable garment.

Hello deer

With the weather continuing fine we have been able to head out each morning for our constitutional - good for exercise but also for keeping us sane in these troubled times.  We have explored all over the woodlands to the north of our village. 

As stated in the last post we are attended by flights of butterflies, Meadow Browns and Hedge Browns mostly, with so many Whites I am amazed there is a cabbage left intact anywhere.  Today we saw a Fritillary and also a Speckled Wood.  At last, a chance of a decent photo.

We often get a sighting of deer in these woodlands - often a muntjac, just slipping away.  But we have seen far more Fallow Deer this year than ever before, often just a doe or two, sometimes with fawns.  Last week we happened upon a herd - upwards of thirty animals grazing, including four full-antlered stags.  They were at some distance and we have only simple cameras.

Today a different grouping, closer to. Interesting to see the many possible colorations in the group.

Later we saw the antlered stags moving as a group through dense undergrowth.

Just working on a cabled waistcoat in Aran weight, not that it is the weather for it just now.