the Belle Vest by Rita Marques
Recently I had the opportunity to test knit the Belle Vest by Rita Marques. It is a cropped boxy fit vest that is knit from the bottom up. I would consider this a great pattern for someone considering making their first sweater. Yes, it doesn’t have sleeves - but I think this makes it better for someone just learning to make wearables. The pattern itself includes links to video tutorials of techniques, which is fantastic for someone relatively new to knitting.
Ribbing done with 5mm wooden circulars
Body done with 6mm plastic circulars
I made the vest in size 6, which turned out true to size. I did a little bit of messing around with needle sizes to obtain gauge on this one. I generally consider myself a bit of a “tight” knitter, so it wasn’t a surprise that I needed to size up the 4.5 mm needles to 5 mm needles. I was a bit surprised that I was able to use 6mm needles to obtain gauge in pattern, though. I think this is likely because I only had plastic circulars of that size, and my gauge is often looser on plastic.
It’s possible my yarn choice also had something to do with the gauge. The pattern calls for Drops Kid Silk or Drops Flora held together with Drops Air. Unfortunately for me, I’m allergic to sheep’s wool, which is used in both Flora and Air. Instead of using Drops yarn, I fell back on my favorite acrylic, Joann’s Big Twist. Theoretically the thickness of the yarn should match up, and since my gauge didn’t need too much adjusting, I assume the difference in yarn weight is negligible.
I only made two deviations from the pattern for this project. The first one is pretty obvious, especially if you’ve already clicked through to look at the pattern (which you should do!). I opted to use intarsia in the round to make a large check pattern in this vest. I’ve used this technique on other projects and knew it would make little difference in regards to the actual pattern of the vest. The fit and texture stays the same, the only thing that changes is the color - and the amount of ends I need to weave in!
The other change I made, while technically an option in the pattern, still bears a mention. When picking up the ribbing for the sleeves, I picked up maybe 10 stitches less than the pattern recommended for my specific size. In the photos above, you can see how the fit of the vest changed with the ribbing. I believe the gaping in the armholes was caused, in part, by my sloped shoulders. In general, I dislike making myself wearables because my shoulders and arms are very hard to fit. I always have to make changes. This pattern is great because reducing the number of stitches in the ribbing was such a minor change, and the only change I had to make to the fit. With sweaters I usually have a bit of a nightmare process where I have to modify the shoulder, the armhole and the sleeve width. This was considerably easier.
Let’s get a closer look at that shoulder seam!
The last thing I wanted to mention about this vest was a new-to-me technique, the three-needle bind-off! It was used in the shoulders of the Belle Vest and I absolutely love the results! It looks super crisp from the outside, and on the inside it is very neat, looking almost like a chain stitch. I’m definitely adding this to my repertoire of preferred cast offs.
The Belle Vest was such a quick make, with such a beautiful result, it’s really made me want to make more vests!! I’ve been wearing it nonstop since I took it off the needles. Did you know Rita has another vest design in her pattern portfolio? Be sure to check out her designs, and let me know what you make!
Happy crafting!