My husband rarely makes requests for knits but when he does they are very specific. His last two requests have involved intarsia as a technique and I finally decided that 2024 was the year for me to finally learn how to knit intarsia. And as luck would have it, my LYS Fibre Space had a class in the spring so I could finally check this skill of my list. For the class, we were tasked with making the Warp Vest.
It is knit with a marled yarn effect, holding two strands of fingering weight yarn together, which helps to make joins look a bit smoother than if you’re knitting with just one strand. For my first Warp Vest I settled on a palette of green, blue and a sparkly yellow yarn with flecks of blue and green in it.
Oddly enough it reminds me a lot of knitting colorwork and just being consistent with how I change my colors as I go along my row. the vest is knit in panels and seamed together and then you pick a contrasting color for the ribbing.
I decided on a purple/pink yarn to really pop against the blues and greens and I really loved it. and I also realize that when I learn a new technique, I like to knit a project twice to just reinforce what I learned, so for my second Warp Vest I knit it with cotton and linen yarn instead to make it kind of an all year round vest.
For my second vest I went with a softer color palette of pastels with pink, white and purple and a minty pop of color. And now that I’ve tackled learning intarsia I’ve got a list of projects I’m ready to tackle!
Yards of Happiness 
Gorgeous knits, and gorgeous you! Well done, Dana!
You look great in both versions!
Congratulations on learning intarsia. I learned to knit in the 1980s, so of course I plunged right into intarsia because it was the THE look in knitwear of the day đŸ˜‰ Stranded knitting was much harder, imo, but you took that on right away – now you’ve got both in your toolkit. What intarsia projects are you going to make for your husband?
— Gretchen (aka stashdragon)
He really likes the Bolt sweater, so I may tackle it by the end of the year.
I love this. It’s beautiful!
Really delightful. Congratulations on tackling all the colors. I remember a Map of the World sweater in Vogue Knitting sometime in the last century. Not everyone could carry that look but it was a stunner, and now there is an afghan version. You could put a baby on Asia and wrap the rest of the blanket around her. (If only I were that ambitious!)
OMG, I remember that pattern. I think I even have the magazine with the pattern in it. lol
I love both those vests!
Thanks for the blog post, Dana. I always enjoy it when you share your knitting (and your pooches).