Lettuce Coat

I finished my Lettuce Coat last Thursday, but have been too busy to blog it (of course, I did find time to mark it finished in Ravelry, for some reason I am a slave to keeping Ravelry up to date). It is a very comfy coat, and fits like a coat, meaning that from a side view, it's a little bulky, but the front split opening adds a suggestion of slimness on the front view.


It's knit from the top down with a provisional cast on at the shoulders which is then used to knit the fronts until they all merge under the arm. I had never knit a sweater this way and it was enjoyable because it kept my attention, waiting to see what comes next. However, I still dislike wrassling a sweater around in my lap, especially when you knit the whole body and then pick up stitches for the sleeves. I was worried that the weight of the coat would elongate the stitches at the shoulder seam, but they are holding nicely. Also, there are no buttonholes to knit, you attach I-cord loops as you trim the fronts in I-cord. The wooden buttons really accent it, I think. I was supposed to carry the I-cord all the way down into the Brioche rib, but it made the lower corners curl, so I removed it. The brioche rib is reversible and doesn't curl, and it creates a nice selvedge chain that can stand on it's own.



Here's the side view I was talking about. A little bulky in the waist, but it's still flattering. And warm!


This is a closeup of the Malabrigo Red Java colorway, I love how the colors range between pink, rust, brown, red and all shades in between.

Okay, no more cheating, I have to finish my Giraffe Jacket before spring!

Dogs and Knitting

Does anyone else's dog think that your knitting bag is their personal pillow? Mine does this all the time. She's moved her bed closer to the bag to use it for a pillow!

Lettuce Coat Behaving So Far

The (Ravelry link) Lettuce Coat is coming along nicely, although I really should rename it since I'm using reds instead of the lettuce green yarn. It's top-down construction, so you provisionally cast on for the back, knit down to the armholes, put those stitches on a holder, unpick the provisional cast on and knit the two fronts down to the armholes, then join the whole mess. The fabric no longer feels quite so floppy and the color changes in this yarn are just beautiful (although I'm partial to reds and browns anyway). The brioche rib has slowed me down quite a bit, not because it's a hard stitch. The YO next to a slipped stitch tend to trade places on the cord, and it's a lot of tugging to get them back up on the needle to knit them. Secondly, I discovered after a few rows of brioche rib that one ball of yarn has more of the lighter colors in it and it was really obvious, so I dropped it after a few rows and am now blending two balls of yarn. There's more light streaks on the ribbing than anywhere else in the sweater, but I had already knit the fronts, back, joined them all together and done the waist shaping before I discovered it, so of course I won't go back, ha. Just another reason to not favor top-down construction. I know I am going to be really aggravated when I'm knitting on the sleeves, but I've never done a pattern where you knit the sleeves by picking up stitches, so I was interested in trying the technique. Six inches of brioche rib done, 9 more to go! lol

Lettuce Coat angst

I have cast on for the (Ravelry Link) Lettuce Coat from Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard. I scored the Malabrigo for it in the Red Java colorway (that I have admired for two years but could never afford) at a reasonable price at Webbs. I have only done about six rows, because I am uneasy. The gauge for this coat is 14 st / 4 in on #9 needles. Ball band says 16-20 st / 4 in on size 7-9 needles. I had to go up to a size 13 needle to get close to gauge. The holes are pretty big and I'm not sure that the fabric isn't too floppy for a coat. I swatched over and over, and I've stopped and measured gauge in several places and gone round and round. The problem is, I don't own a size 12 needle. Size 11 gives me 15st/in and size 13 gives me 13 st/in. Problem #2 is, there's a big jump in sizing, I'm a 39" bust, and the sizing is 40" or 43-1/2", which would be too big and bulky in this loose-spun yarn. So I'd rather fall short on gauge and get my size slightly larger than 40", rather than go down to an 11 and have to block the heck out of it. All I can hope for, I guess, is that this yarn will bloom after washing and fill in those big loop holes a bit. It is loosely spun, so should bloom. I know, I know, I should have washed the swatch.

Checked on Ravelry, everyone else used size 9 needles for their coats, and only one person mentioned having to block the heck out of it. So either they used the #9 and knit a larger size, or they have a very tight coat.

Checked on wiseneedle.com, they are saying it's 18 st / 4" on a #9, which makes me feel better using a #13 to get 14 st/ in.

Guess I'll blunder ahead and see what happens.

Zigzag Cowl

Here's a little (Ravelry link) Zigzag Cowl that I whipped out while sitting at the rink. I really meant for it to last longer so that I'd have something to do, but ending up enjoying the pattern and was anxious to see how it would look. It has a picot cast on, then at the end you bindoff and turn the picot over and sew in place. I tried to think of a way to bind it off and sew it in place at the same time, but eventually realized it would leave a harder seam than binding off loosely and then using the bindoff chain to stitch it in place. Yarn used is Berroco Ultra Alpaca, which is soft and warm but will felt in the blink of an eye. If I gift this I'll have to enclose care instructions.

I passed!

Woo hoo! Just received an e-mail confirmation that I passed Level 1 of TKGA's Master Hand Knitting course! Yeeeeeha!!

Second Time's a Charm

Just dropped my TKGA Master Hand Knitting Level I resubmission in the mail. I dropped it in quickly before I could second-guess myself, like ripping off a band-aid. I didn't even watch the door close.

Hopefully, this is what they are looking for and I'll be done! I purposely haven't marked it as a finished project in Ravelry because I don't want to jinx it.

When I was at the Gourmet Yarn Company the other day, Margaret asked me if I had finished it yet, and I told her it was going to have to wait until after the holidays. She asked if I had signed up for Level II yet, and I told her no, our group had decided that this course had pretty much sucked all of the fun out of knitting. But now I find myself wondering about the second level. I know I could do it, but I don't think I would have ever finished the first level had it not been for our Thursday group that worked on it all together. Looking back now, our agonizing over the seed stitch swatch is pretty funny, but it was all serious business at the time. Level II on my own would be a lonely business, but I'm curious about it...