Steps

The plan is to turn this

into this

by the end of the month. Well, by the 26th, really. 21 days. Can I do it? Here is what I have so far:

and this much knit:

This is an interesting pattern. I don't know if you can see from the photo, it is sort of dark. There is a waistband around the bottom, which is knit first, then stitches are picked up from the top and the rest of the vest is knit up from there. It is all garter stitch, so it should be easy enough for my brain to handle. I will have to do some fudging, since this is handspun and my gauge is not spot on. I am doing this in one color, not with the contrasting collar as shown in the photo.

I am using energized singles (ala the "Twisted Sisters Sock Book") to do this. You can see from the above knit photo that it lends an interesting texture to the garter stitch. In theory, since I am using garter stitch it won't bias.

Wait, I should explain this for the non-knitters/non-spinners, if they are bothering to read this far! Usually two singles are spun in one direction, then they are plied together in the other direction. The yarn is then washed to set the twist. If all goes correctly, I end up with a balanced yarn, not overtwisted, not undertwisted.

Energized singles are just a single ply of yarn, and the yarn is not washed to set the twist. If the yarn sits for a period of time, the twist will sort of set itself, the "energy" goes out of it. So I should only spin enough yarn that I can knit before the yarn loses the energy.

I am off to do some feverish knitting. In other words, I've spun more than I should have!

Oh, and in giant cat toy news...one blue egg bit the dust. I noticed it was missing, and found it under the couch. It just needs the hanger glued back on.