Robyn's A-Line Jacket

This is my first project from the book. I'll just update this same post as I progress.

9/5
I finally got some better pictures. It's still really hot in Albuquerque, but in my office, it's like a refrigerator. Even this wool sweater couldn't keep me warm today.




8/23
I actually finished this on Aug. 4, but I have yet to get a decent photo. My husband and I are on different schedules, so I'm often in my PJs when I see him. He took one finally, but forgot the flash, and it's blurry. I also cropped my head out because I looked awful at the time. I'll post a better one eventually.

In the end, I was pleased with my sweater. It's wearable, for sure, but there are areas on it that I don't like the looks of. As the back/shoulder area merged into the collar, it looks sort of sloppy, but it's the same on both sides at least. Also, the decreases are different on the fronts by each armhole -- one has obvious slants, the other doesn't. I'm not sure what I did wrong there. One thing I wish I'd done is follow someone else's idea of making the sleeves 3/4 length. They are meant to be a little short, but it almost looks like they are just short on accident, and not on purpose. Maybe I would have shortened them a wee bit more just so it would be clear they are supposed to be that way. I think one problem is that the yarn is so chunky, you see all the details of the stitches. The recommended yarn was more fuzzy/boucle like, I think, so it is probably more forgiving than mine.




8/3
I am nearly done. I finished sleeve 2 last night and blocked the pieces. I did my best with the blocking, never having done it before. Naturally, a project could never be finished without the help of one's cat:



Now I just have to sew in the sleeves and do the collar. Shouldn't take long once I sit down to do it.



7/20
I finished the body of the sweater! After I got past the armhole bottom and divided it up, it went really quickly. I already did one sleeve and am working on the other. After that I just have to attach the sleeves and then do the collar. It shouldn't be long!

7/14:
I started this sweater June 22. I didn't want to spend the money on the Karabella Puffy yarn recommended by the book. I think it would have cost me about $160. I went with Brown Sheep Burly Spun in a heather gray. It will still run me about $100, but there's a chance I won't need all 6 skeins and can take one back. I'm really not sure yet. It's very bulky, but not quite as much as the Puffy, I guess, because I had to go up to size 17 needles to get 2 sts/inch. I'm not the most experienced knitter, so I'm hoping I did not make some terrible mistake in figuring out this substitution and that the sweater will fit me in the end.

I could not find the 3" diameter buttons anywhere except in the Karabella brand, which were $16 each and would have to be ordered from across the country. I went with smaller, yet still quite large, buttons I found at JoAnn's for a few bucks each. I'll still be using three, and I think it will still look mod and nice.

I also had trouble finding 16" size 17 needles here in town and invested in some Addi Turbos, which weren't cheap in that size, adding to the cost of my sweater quite a bit. (Please don't let me mess this up completely! It must fit. It muuuuust fit.)

In hindsight, I wish I knitted the body of the sweater on longer size 17 circulars, but I didn't want to spend another $25 on needles, so I packed them onto a pair of straight needles, and it was hard to work with.

I also managed to make tons of silly mistakes, like deciding to try to knit when I was sick and then immediately purling a row on a knit row. I have spent a lot of time frogging, and it makes me mad because this is really a simple sweater. I have just been sloppy.

This sweater is knit from the bottom up, and all in one piece until you reach the armholes, at which time the sweater is divided into two fronts and the back. I have just reached this point, and now that I can use shorter needles and have fewer stitches on them, it's much better. I repeatedly found that I would have wrong numbers of stitches on my needles. I would frog until I had the right number and carefully proceed, only to have it happen again. It seemed when I reach the point of division, that the numbers of stitches I was supposed to have according to the instructions didn't match the number I was supposed to divide off onto holders. Somehow I made a mistake or something, but I've just tried to work with it. I ended up with too many, so I just had to do some extra decreases and hope for the best.

I also learned that it does matter if the stitches are facing the wrong way on the needles, i.e. after frogging. When I was learning, one person said it mattered, but another said it didn't. I realized many rows later that it did, at least on this particular piece it was very noticeable.

Here is about 2/3 of the torso of my sweater, along with the right sleeve. These pics aren't much to look at right now.:



closeup (something looks weird to me in this pic. I'll have to go take a closer look):




The picture of the sweater from the book: