Saxon Braid Vest

I have been admiring the stitch pattern called Saxon Braid, and picturing it on the front of a pine green vest. I couldn't find a pattern I liked, so I decided to try my hand at improvising a pattern myself, using Ann Budd's book A Knitter's Book of Patterns, and comparing the measurements with a vest of Sam's and my own measurements.

I went to Let's Knit for yarn, and they didn't have any wool in anything close to pine green and I ended up buying a kind of slate color yarn--basically grey, but with blueish overtones. I think it's attractive, and perhaps more wearable than dark green would be (though I may yet make a second one in dark green, maybe with another Celtic-looking pattern or something.



So on Thursday I cast on for the front, and I am amazed at how quickly this is going! I already have 8 inches done! (The picture shows it at about 4") I started with 124 stitches, size 9 needles, about 6 stitches per inch. Two inches of 2 x 2 ribbing and 2 repeats of the center cable are done already. I put in some waist shaping too.