Pattern by Gregoria Fibers

I made mine in...

Size: 1

Yarn: Oh Folks Co Cloud Cotton in Misty Sage

Needle size: 4.5mm (body), 3.5mm (ribbing)

I really wanted a textured knit vest to style over collared shirts for that preppy look. The Seraphine Vest has filled that gap, but I do have quite a number of complaints about this pattern. I don't want to be too negative, so I'm just going to say that it was an incredibly frustrating knit and leave it at that. Now I will share some tips for things I did/wished I did to fix some of the problems.

The most glaring issue with this pattern is the fit. If you look at the #seraphinevest hashtag on Instagram, you will see how the test knits all pull upwards in the middle of the chest (and mine does too). This is an indication of the arm depth being insufficient. Add more rows on the front and back pieces before joining in the round.

Together with that insufficient arm depth, the neckline is further distorted by a non-v shape neckline being forced into a v-shape. The neckline is actually keyhole shaped, and it gets more distorted the smaller the size. You can see an example, as posted by Gregoria Fibres, here. If you want to fix that, you're going to have to redesign the pattern.

Another major issue is that it all selvedge stitches are slipped. This is a lovely edge if you were going to leave the knitting raw, but it is not for if you are picking up stitches along the edge for ribbing! This is bad because it will make the edges more “holey” and you will not have enough edge stitches to anchor your armband/neckband in. To fix this issue, do not slip the edge stitches. Just knit them as usual in stockinette, or in the broken rib pattern.

The pattern inadvertently admits to this issue, when in picking up the armband stitches, it says to pick up more than the number indicated if you want a neater finish. So you're going to have to decide for yourself how many stitches to pick up, and I would advise picking up way, way more than the pattern indicates.

Additionally, the pattern has you pick up stitches for the 2x2 ribbed armbands in stitch numbers that are not all divisible by four. You have to do your own recalculations to pick up a stitch number divisible by four, as that is absolutely necessary for a 2x2 rib.

The instructions for the twisted rib neckband, which is worked back and forth, are wrong. The correct instructions are below:

Row 1 (RS): kfb, *p2, k2tbl repeat from * to end.

Row 2 (WS): kfb, p1tbl, *k2, p2tbl repeat from * to end.

Row 3 (RS): kfb, k1tbl, *p2, k2tbl repeat from * to end.

Row 4 (WS): kfb, *p2tbl, k2 repeat from * to end.

Row 5 (RS): kfb, *k2tbl, p2 repeat from * to end.

Row 6 (WS): kfb, k1, *p2tbl, k2 repeat from * to end.

Row 7 (RS): kfb, p1 *k2tbl, p2 repeat from * to end.

Row 8 (WS): kfb, *k2, p2tbl repeat from * to end.

At the halfway point of the neckband, where you would fold the neckband under, you should stop increasing and start decreasing instead so that when you fold the neckband, you won't have a ridiculous amount of fabric at the bottom of the V.

I also found the neckband shortrows to be unecessary and made the neck way too high on the back.

While knitting the folded neckband together, make sure to use a stretchy bind off instead of the regular bindoff that was shown in the video.

I used this video for 2x2 rib tubular bind off. I did not bother with a tubular bind off on my waist hemline, and just bound off in pattern.