Lizard Vest

Ok, no handspun, but hand dyed this time. I got this beautiful yarn in a magic boll. At first I wanted to knit something for myself, but then I saw the way the colours matched my oldest son's eyes.............

So ofcourse, it had to be knit into something for him. He loves - like every boy his age - dragons, dinosaurs and reptiles. I decided to make a vest, a lizard vest!

Yarn: Aran, 240 grams. You might want to use a bit more. I used up all the yarn from the magic ball. I f I had more I probably would make the vest a bit longer (no complaining, dear magic boll friend!!!)

Needle: 5 mm

Fits my 120 cm 7 year old.

The vest is knit bottom up and circular up unto the armholes.

Cast on 3 stitches, knit an I cord just for 2 cm and after that start knitting in rib 1-1. Not longer circular (the I cord way), now you are using two needles. To make the tail a bit curved (yes you are making the lizard tail) start increasing the next 5 rightside row 1 stitch to left of the middle stitch. After these 6 rows, increase every right side row two stitches: left and right of the middle stitch. Do this untill you've got 15 stitches, then cast on 85 stitches. You have 100 stitches on your needle. Start knitting circular in 1-1 rib and ofcourse be careful not to twist.

After 7 cm stop knitting in rib. The rest of the body is knitted in stockinette except for the sides of the vest. The sides continue in ribbing 1-1. Start and end this ribbing section with a purl stitch, otherwise it looks like part of the stockinette knitting. I don't use stitchmarkers, but it can be helpfull to place a stitchmarker at the beginning and the end of the side ribbing. You have to divide the vest up in 4 parts: 2 sides, the front and back. The sides are 15 stitches in ribbing, 2 sides x 15 stitches is 30 stitches. That leaves 70 stitches for the front and back. 35 stitches each. Measure this out and continue knitting: front and back stockinette, sides 1-1 ribbing for 30 cm.

Before you create the armholes at 32 cm add 2 stitches of ribbing on both sides of the ribbing sides (ok that sentence is a bit weird...). Each side has now 19 stitches in ribbing. The armholes are created by simply casting off 6 stitches. The first armhole is created when you're knitting from back to front: knit 7 ribstitches, then cast off 6 stitches, knit 6 ribbingstitches and then the front follows. Then the second armhole will be made: knit 6 stitches in rib, cast off 6 and knit last 7 stitches of the side in rib.

At this point you are knitting back and forth, no longer circular. First the back, leave the front on a scrap yarn. From this point on you will add ribbing stitches to the side of the armholes. Adding ribbing stitches will be done in steps of 2 stitches each time (one knit and one purl ofcourse). Do this 3 times, in every 4th row. When done you will have added 6 ribbing stitches after binding off. Continue knitting the back untill it measures 18 cm from the armholes. Don't cast off, put the stitches on a scrap yarn.

The front: You will be doing two things from this point: making the collar and adding ribstitches. Adding ribstitches will be done in the same way as described for the back. Now for creating the collar: Continue knitting the front for 2 more centimeters. In the next right side row knit 28 stitches (including the ribstitches), stop and turn. This way you will make the collar and divide the front in two. When turned, knit 11 stitches in 1-1 rib starting and ending with a knit stitch (on this wrong side row), then knit the rest of this row the stitches as they present themselves (stockinette or rib). Sorry to say, but there is one more thing you will have to do in this front piece: make a decrease every right side row on the edge of the ribbed collar and the (small) stockinette part. This way the stockinette part will continue to get smaller untill the ribbing of the collar and the armhole ribbing come together. When this happens you will have 24 ribbing stitches. In my lizard vest this point was 8 cm after the split for the collar. Continue knitting in rib untill this front piece measures 18 cm from the armholes. Leave the stitches on a scrap yarn.

Then the opposite front piece: Pick up 11 stitches in the back of stitches of the ribbed collar of the first front piece. Yes, there will be an overlap. I'm sorry to say I don't know if you are picking up in a right side row or a wrong side row. I have written this down after knitting. So you might want to start with picking up the stitches in the ribbed collar, of start from the armhole. eiter way once picked up, this frontpiece is knitted exactly the same as the other one: adding ribstitches from the armhole, decreasing in the small stockinette part next to ribbed collar. When this part of the front measures 18 cm from the armhole the shoulders can be knit together. Take 12 stitches from the front and from the back and graft them together for the shoulders: see knitty for a great tutorial on grafting. Do this for the right and left shoulder (duh).

The hood! Knit the remaining stitches of the front in rib 1-1, pick up 5 stitches from the shoulder and knit these and the waiting back stitches in stockinette, pick up another 5 stitches from the other shoulder and knit the last remaining front stitches in rib 1-1. Do this for 10 cm. Pick the middle stitch and start increasing to the left and right of this stitch every right side row. Keep doing this for 35 rows or something. Decrease in the same way for 10 rows. Fold the hood and cast off with a three needle bind off. This makes for a strange looking hood, my son loved it. It was very lizardy according to him. But you can also make a normal looking hood.