October is on the doorstep and, for many of us, that’s the sign that knitting season has begun. Today has a bit of a full circle feeling, as I’m releasing a new design featuring a yarn that I purchased last October. This is the Backbone Vest.
That’s right: my love of a good vest continues! Faster to knit than a sweater (and with less yardage, too), this vest provides just the right amount of warmth over almost any outfit, especially when the mornings have that crisp and chilly note.
This design also represents my first happy experience with Peace Fleece. I’d been looking forward to working with this yarn for a while, not just for its beautiful heathered colors, but because of the way it’s sourced and manufactured. For decades, Peace Fleece had been combining wool from overseas producers with American wool. By blending together wool from historical enemies (such as the first Soviet fleece to ever enter the US legally) with domestic fine wool, Peace Fleece demonstrated the possibility of reducing conflict when we work together. In recent years, Peace Fleece has been sourcing fine wool from the Navajo and blending it together with additional fine wool and mohair to create woolen-spun yarns with true meaning. If you’d like to learn more about Peace Fleece and the ways in which they work alongside the Navajo Nation, take a look at their most recent blog post about their 2025 wool buying trip.
For my design, I chose their worsted-weight yarn in a multi-dimensional colorway called “Zarya fog.” What appears to be gray at first actually contains flashes of blue, cream, rust, and even a hint of purple on closer inspection.
Because this yarn contains a blend of fine wools and mohair, it has the ability to be knit at multiple different gauges and still produce fabric that has both body and fluidity. You could easily knit this yarn on a size US 10 needle to lean into how lightweight (and yet still warm) the fabric can be. Instead, I chose to bring the needle size down down to a US 8, to get more definition for a striking cable panel on the back without sacrificing the drape of the stockinette fabric on the front.
And it’s precisely because this yarn has such body that I was able to have some fun with the edging on this vest. The entire vest is edged with an attached i-cord that provides a rounded, finished structure to the stockinette edges while also blending subtly into the overall fabric of the garment.
The result is the essence of comfort: a gently oversized vest, perfect for layering, with just enough texture to catch the eye and keep the knitting fun, especially when you add in the (optional!) notched hem.
The fully-edited pattern features 10 different sizes covering a range of finished chest circumferences between 37 and 74 inches. The pattern also includes resources on how to work the attached i-cord technique.
The vest is knit flat. The right front, back, and left front are each knit individually at first, joined to create that optional notched hem, and then the body is worked in one piece up to the armholes. The right front, back, and left front are separated again, each is knit up to the neck, and they are seamed at the shoulders. The attached i-cord edging is the finishing touch as it’s worked around each armhole and the body.
This was my first, but hopefully not my last, experience with the exceptional yarn being produced by Peace Fleece. Being able to create a useful, cozy garment with yarn rooted in the ideas of cooperation, fair trade, and sustainability is fulfilling to me as a designer and as a knitter. I hope that this latest design and this incredible yarn leave you feeling similarly inspired!
You can find the Backbone Vest pattern here at DCD or here on Ravelry.
Happy knitting season!
xoxo Danielle
daniellechalson.com 