It's a Jacket! Just Not Done Yet

Though it was a busy weekend, it ended up being a weekend where there was a lot of knitting time hiding here and there. So, I actually finished all the knitting on my Kauni jacket! Lee was in photography mode, so I even have action shots of Suna doing mattress stitch (two very, very long seams to try to keep even—my back is now reminding me of how I have to lean over to do that stitching!

In the stitching photo, I would like to point out that the beer bottle does not belong to me. Liquor and precision don’t go together, so I did not imbibe. The beer was a fine reward for planting a bunch of plants, which Lee did!


This picture shows one long seam sewn together while the other is waving around. Note that the horizontal side seems longer. It shortened up once I seamed it.

I had a bit of trouble with the small shawl collar. In fact, I don’t like the collar much at all. It would probably look less awkward in the yarn the jacket originally calls, for which is self-striping sock yarn, but even after I carefully plowed into my leftover skeins to finish the little collar flap that is left at the end of all the other knitting, there was nothing I could do about the fact that one half is blue and the other is yellow, nor of how hard it is to hide the seams. I seamed the collar parts so that the “right side” has seams, because the “wrong side” is what folds over to be the collar. Even my neatest mattress stitch still has an edge. So, I tacked the collar down and will probably end up with a little tack to keep it ending at the same spot on each side. You can sort of see the collar in the picture of the back of the jacket.



The back is another thing I hope resolves itself. Even the Asian lady on TV in the photo looks like she can’t believe how that jacket looks. Definitely the horizontal side is about an inch wider than the vertical side. I think a lot has to do with the different ways garter stitch stretches depending on orientation. That’s probably why the vertical side is a bit longer than the horizontal, too. My current thought is that once I block the jacket (which I will need to do anyway, to try to soften the wool and maybe get out some of the twigs that are still in it), I will be able to block it to the right measurements.


That brings me to fit—I did it! The jacket fits just right. It’s supposed to be fairly snug, and it looks like it will meet up exactly in the front, like it should. I am guessing it will fit a little better once I lose the post-wedding ten pounds I am working on, but it is fine now. After poor old Bridget, I am glad to see that I actually CAN get the right gauge and stick with it. Forgive my weird shiny face in the photo. It was a warm day and I’d been sewing under that wool jacket for quite some time. Not my best look, for sure.

I look forward to having true FO photos for you soon. Look forward in my next post to photos of birthday stuff, and a report on how nice my knitting friends are.