Today, dear readers, I have a FO for you!

Does anyone remember when I started my Sexxxy Librarian Vest? I for one had to look that date up: I bought the yarn in 2012, and as best I can estimate, I started it over a year ago. I was having a great time knitting another cool Holla Knits pattern…until I started having trouble with it.

I guess this is where I should admit that I am a serial yarn substituter. The pattern calls for either Dirty Water Dyeworks Edna or Knit Picks City Tweed. One of the awesome things about Holla Knits is that they offer you two road-tested yarns for each pattern. What did I do? Throw reason to the wind and choose an entirely different yarn, Rowan DK Tweed. It’s a nice yarn, don’t get me wrong, but I will swear on my stash it’s not a DK.

If it was a DK my vest wouldn’t have come out sheer the first time.

Please note that this is not the fault of the awesome Holla Knits team, but of the knitter who didn’t swatch until it was far too late. Even though my own lack of common sense meant that I knitted this project twice, I had a great time: like all the other Holla Knits patterns I’ve taken on thus far, the Sexxxy Librarian was a fast and straightforward knit.

I can’t say enough about the cowl. It is super super warm: if this was a full sweater, it would be too warm, but as a vest, it’s perfect. I layered it under a denim jacket for a baseball game and stayed warm and snug all night.

Anything else you need to know about this vest? The cable. It makes the whole project fun.

Oh yeah. Don’t substitute yarns without swatching. Unless, of course, you want to spend a year knitting a vest you could have been rocking last fall.