Present Knitting

So, I just realized that my Dad's birthday is at the end of the month. Time to get knitting. Last spring I started a vest for him but was doing it in pieces, and my gauge was off. After knitting up one skein, the front (or back, your preference, as I didn't get far enough for there to be a difference) was much wider than it needed to be, and it's been sitting in the stash with the rest of the yarn apportioned for this project.

Yesterday at Isobel's swim lesson I frogged the front and crunched some numbers with Ann Budd's handy The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns, then cast on for a striped vest in Notre Dame colors (Indigo and Mustard, according to the good people at Louet, but Blue and Gold for Dad). It will have six rows of 2x2 ribbing in blue at hem, armholes, and v-neck, and one row of gold after every two rows of blue in the body. I'm using US4s and cast on 120 each for front and back. Let's see how fast I can knit! I did manage about three inches yesterday, including casting on those 240 stitches and doing an inch of ribbing. I'm also purling the side seam stitches. We'll see. I'll try to snap a pic while Isobel and I are at the park today.