English Nantucket Jacket

Hi. It's finished buttons and all!! It's taken me 2 weeks to get to a shop to choose the buttons with help from a friend. The photo doesn't show them clearly. The have a tiny gold rim. Actually the jacket is more important than waffle about buttons, but the wrong ones can ruin our masterpieces.

Size 36"It took just over 6 skeins of Cascade 220 ,turkish plum. I have enough left to knit and felt a matching pair of ballerina slippers. I lengthened the sleeves to 17.5"and I'm really pleased with them, (I didn't adjust the armholes). The jacket body is a little baggy for my taste but will fit over all my layers in winter and keep me lovely and warm. It is very stretchy and washing will have to be careful. I really enjoyed the pattern. Enough interest to keep going yet not too hard so that you have to concentrate each and every stitch. I kept to the original crochet edge pattern(which I think looks good) but did not edge the cuffs.

FO!

That's right, I finished! I really enjoyed knitting this sweater. I was dubious about making a wool sweater with elbow-length sleeves, but after wearing it around for a bit, I've decided I like that feature. Overall, it was an enjoyable project that produced an end result I am happy with. However, I am still unsure about the yarn, Berroco Pure Merino. It's very soft, but it stretches a lot. I will have to be very careful when I wash this sweater.

Pattern: Nantucket Jacket from the Winter 2006 Interweave Knits by Nora Gaughan
Needles: US 9 Denise Interchangeables
Yarn: 13 balls of Berroco Pure Merino
Notions: 6 5/8" buttons
Size: 34" chest

Modifications to the pattern: After knitting the waist decreases as written, I knit for 2 extra inches before I did the bust increases. For the sleeves, I knit the sleeves for the next size up, to avoid them being too tight (however, I don't think this mod was necessary, since the yarn I used is so stretchy). When I crocheted the scallops on the sleeves, I did it with the RS facing and worked in rounds, instead of starting with the WS facing and turning after the first row. For the crochet on the button bands, I did the sc row in one hook size, then I went up two hook sizes for the scallop row. I also did the scallops as *sc, skip 1 st, dc/ch 1/dc/ch1/dc all in next st, skip 1 st* instead of *sc, skip 2 sts, dc/ch 1/dc/ch1/dc all in next st, skip 2 sts*. I found that this made the scallops stand out a bit better. Finally, I worked six buttonholes instead of five.

More Progress

I have completed the back and one half of the front. So far I have pretty much followed the pattern, except I made the body 2 inches longer. This has been a relaxing yet engaging knit. But I am really curious to see how it will look once finished.

ribbit, ribbit, ribbit

the sound of frogging.
At the risk of sounding like a poop, since you are all creating such lovely sweaters, I will expose my failure. I finished my sweater on deadline, packed it in my suitcase and finally tried it on when I got to DC. I was planning to wear this to give a speech.

Yuck

I was worried it would be too tight, so I knit larger and it is 3" too big. So much for a fitted look.

The sleeves also looked bad, just too short. And gumpy looking where they joined the body.

I tried it on at my local knit/bitch group and they had some helpful suggestions.

So the arms have come off and I am making them longer.

I will then sew the sides together without the gussets and also make my sleeve tops longer. wish me luck.

to make matters worse, a friend who is tall and slim tried it on and it looked fabulous on her.
boo hoo.

and then I lost the election I had to give the speech at.
Lori

Sleeves!

Hello all! I just joined (thanks for accepting me, Amby!). I'm currently working on the sleeves of my sweater. I originally started with the back, but then I noticed a mistake and had to frog, so I decided the sleeves would be a better place to begin anew. Sleeve #1 is blocking right now. I'm using the recommended yarn, Berrocco Pure Merino.

WIP

The back!

And, yes, I am moving painfully slowly on the knitting of Nantucket. But, look, the back!

blocking & finishing on a deadline, butttons anyone????

I am sooooooo close to completing.

I just cast off the fronts at the top collar and I blocked it. I only sprayed it with water instead of washing the fronts, since I am short on time and have the rest of the sweater blocked already.

I am hoping to stitch the sweater together tonight, and crochet the edges and then I can take it on my trip to DC when I leave on Tuesday night.

I have to give a speech and in order to calm down, I made a goal for myself to knit this sweater to wear. I should be writing my speech but this is so much more fun.

So what type buttons have folks used please? I am going to go button shopping soon. thanks, will post photo when done.......