FO: The Shawl Collar Jacket

Pattern: Shawl Collar Jacket by Alexandra Virgiel  [I wish I'd known she had the kind of attitude that kept me from buying patterns online before I'd bought and made this one.]

Yarn: Kathmandu Aran Tweed (Discontinued), Color 120. (85% merino, 10% silk, 5% cashmere) I think I used 10 and the tiniest bit of ball #11 out of the 14 balls I picked up at Richmond’s Lettuce Knit. It isn’t particularly “jackety” – much more traditional cardigan. But I used a lighter-than-called-for yarn, and if you used a chunky yarn, it would make a great early fall/spring jacket.

Time to knit: Two weeks! (February 2 – 15). Time spent sitting on the couch: One month. Time at tailor for the zipper: One week.

Mods: I knit the body in one piece (no side seams). After reading this post where Cara said that Nona suggested that sewing the sleeve into a tube before sewing to the body was easier, I tried it that way. Now, I’ve only done set in sleeves with the body in two (three, for cardi) parts before, so I don’t know if the tube-to-tube was easier than flat sleeve-to-tube body, but it wasn’t particularly hard, so I’m going to stay with the tube-to-tube camp. I also picked up stitches for the shawl collar part, rather than knitting the shawl collar separately, and then sewing it on.

Other thoughts: This is the greatest sweater ever. It fits like a dream, it’s warm and squishy, and pretty much perfect in every way.

This is my 3rd finished sweater this year (but only the 2nd one to get a blog entry). I’ve also finished my top-down deep v-neck 3/4 length sleeve blue sweater, but it needs to be washed before it gets a blog post.