One of my current design projects is a Nordic vest for my niece Jessica's baby — a little boy due in August (altho there is a baby shower at the end of June — so I have to get it done soon!).  Sonja suggested something classic and we agreed on a Nordic style vest to be done in with Fair Isle stranding.  I was delighted to find a handsome stitch pattern in Vibeke Lind's Knitting in the Nordic Tradition which has been (according to the author) been used in Finland (where our family is from).

KnitPicks Palette is my favorite yarn for Fair Isle work — and it comes in a zillion colors — so finding a good blue (to go with the black and cream) was simple.  Swatching went well, too.  Sizing had me kind of anxious, tho, because the pattern has a 22-stitch repeat which runs about 2 1/4 inches at my gauge.  So, the possible vest measurements (around) went in 2 1/4 inch increments — with even number repeats being preferable (ex., a repeat of 8 means 4 on the front and 4 on the back).  I went for the 8 repeats — so the vest should measure 18" around.  Maybe about a 6 month size? 

I wanted a ribbing around the bottom edge (I should mention that the vest is being knit in the round) and used smalled needles (US 0!) for that — the Fair Isle is worked on US 2.  About 3/4 inches of rib looked good, so I stoped there and moved onto the US 2's and on to the Nordic pattern. 

The Nordic pattern is 22 rows tall — about 2 inches.  So, the height of the vest will have to work out to some nice 2" number.  Plus the ribbing.  And somehow armholes should happen at a nice 2" spot — but also where armholes should be for a vest that is about 6 month size.  And somehow the width of the armholes should work into the 22 stitch repeat width…and the head hole should work into both the 22 stitch width and the 22 row height — and be in the right spot for a 6 month size vest…

Which is all starting to sound like the nursery rhyme about The House That Jack Built.  And while some nursery rhymes were code for political situations, I doubt that this one is code for how to knit a Nordic vest in size 6 months…and now I am thinking I would have been better off knitting a sweatere with Intarsia — a cat and a rat and whatever else was in The House That Jack Built!

But the wily Nordics had a trick to make it all work.  Lice Stitch.  A simple stranded pattern of single stitch dots in one color on a background of another color.  So, whenever it all got to be just too much, they could abandon the pattern and jump into Lice Stitch — and all would be peachy. 

So, that is my plan. 

Did I mention that I am supposed to be making a matching hat too?  6 month size.  Yeah, Lice Stitch is going to be a life-saver there too!