Dear Anne
Now the shorter days and colder weather is on the horizon, I thought I’d better dig out my winter vests. Sadly they’ve seen better days, a bit like me! I decided to get some new ones and had forty fits to see the price of decent, old-fashioned vests. I’m going to follow Joan Lafferty’s pattern, as I did all those years ago, and knit some. Back then she told us to raid our yarn stash and find two strands of 1-ply botany wool. No chance now, but I’m sure a bit of soft cotton will be fine, especially as I can’t wear wool next to my skin. I’ve no idea about the sizing, but I think you’d call me an old-fashioned size 18 and I knit the third size.
Back and front (alike) Using 2 strands of 1-ply botany wool or whatever, cast on 156 [158, 160, 164] sts.
Hem Using T5, K 10 rows on main bed. Using T10, K 1 row. Using T5, K 10 rows. Turn up hem by placing cast-on sts on Ns of last row.
Main part K straight for 125 [130, 135, 140] rows or length to waist. Shape waist by transferring alt sts to ribber and K 20 rows in rib. (Ribbing gives a nice snug fit.) Transfer back to main bed and K 60 rows.
Shape armholes Cast off 5 sts at beg of next 2 rows and 2 sts at beg of foll 2 rows. Dec 1 st each end of foll 10 rows.
Neck and shoulder straps With everything in HP on left side, cast off 13 sts to right of centre stitch and cont on these sts. Dec 1 st at each end of every foll row until 12 sts rem. K straight for 30 rows. Cast off. Complete left side to match.
Making up Sew up sides and top of straps, then work two rows of double crochet round armholes and neckline. Stay warm! Sincerely, Maggie
Thanks for writing Maggie and back then the pattern was probably written for something like 38 [39, 40, 41] inch bust sizes. Joan would have definitely used her Knit Leader. In fine pure wool, I guess it was knitted on a fairly loose tension. This would help the fabric to trap the air to keep us warm and give it a fair bit of stretch.