This vest was once called The 60's – UP & UP. Now it's called The Dandelion, and I think the name suits it better.
The dandelion is the flower nobody plants. It pushes up through cracks in the tarmac and through gravel, and it doesn't give up. It is one of the world's most underrated flowers. That is why it is embroidered here — the vest is about strength, resilience and hope, and the beauty of the imperfect, and the dandelion says it without anything needing to be written. The dandelion is often seen as a weed, but when you stop and look more closely, you find a flower full of detail, beauty and vitality. The same goes for people. The Dandelion – The Vest is inspired by everyone who has got back up after hardship and found their own way forward. The design is a reminder that what stands out is often the most beautiful of all.
The embroidery is sewn on afterwards, not knitted in. That means you first knit a calm, striped garment, and then decide how many dandelions you want and where they should sit. No two vests are ever quite alike.
My advice is to embroider while the garment lies flat on the table, and to lay the flowers out with pins before you sew a single stitch. The placement is the whole design, and it is easy to move as long as nothing is fastened.
The small shoulder wings do the rest. A vest without sleeves needs something that marks where the shoulder ends, otherwise it just hangs straight down.
Alpaca and wool on 7 mm needles. Marked advanced beginner.
Advanced beginner · 7 mm needles · alpaca and wool · stripes and embroidery
See the pattern → · The embroidery school · More vests
Good luck, and I hope you'll enjoy the design.
Did you know …
Yellow is the colour that stands up to light worst of all in plant dyeing. In old tapestries, yellow has often faded to beige. Where yellow was dyed into green, the green looks bluer today than it once was.
Sources: Store norske leksikon – dye plants.
Anne-Turid <3