Tuesday, November 27, 2007

I'm So Smart!

Finally, a picture of the Einstein Coat/Jacket:

I finished it sometime before Lucy turned 3 (Nov 2005). I only remember that because we had a party and I took my mom over to see a house we were trying to buy, and I let her wear the jacket (hoping it fit her cause I didn't like it on me). I think I won the cream Shetland Chunky in February of 2004, although it could have been 2005. Raffle prize from the Georgetown Knitting guild. I wasn't sure if it'd be enough, and I was in love with Patons Divine, so I used that for the arms and knitted at the same time trim.

Issues! Oh boy, were there issues. The Divine has a slightly different gauge. Not an issue when I used it in the bottom piece as that was done with rows, but continuing the look of the band up the upper piece was challenging. It was 7 sts (why can I remember that?), but every so often I would do an extra short row in just the band. Or was it I did a row without knitting the band? LOL.

The Shetland Chunky has a different gauge than what the pattern called for, but it's pretty easy to go by dimensions for this pattern. I did make it a little shorter, I don't mind it, but as it's mostly acrylic, it hasn't stretched much and a little longer would have been fine.

I didn't knit buttonholes. I wanted to use clear snaps but I couldn't find any that were large enough. I don't want to fiddle with tiny snaps when it's cold out. And once it was finished, I knew it was too big/square, so I didn't have much desire to finish it off.

Another modification--I didn't use all the upper rows to pick up sts for the sleeve (it's knit downwards). I left about two inches which I just seamed up. Even still, the armhole/sleeve is huge.

I did wear it one day soon after finishing, and a woman stopped me in the store and said it was a nice Einstein! It's very recognizable, but like most patterns in that book, doesn't look like a 'beginner' project. I would contemplate making it again....with a much nicer, more interesting yarn! Although I did not like knitting miles of plain, straight, garter stitch. I felt like such a beginner, so I never took it out in public, LOL.

And, I ended up have quite a bit of the Shetland Chunky left over. Even though it's only 25% wool, I dyed it....that would have been Easter.....2005? It was in the old house, and I don't think I would have done that Easter of 2006 when we were in the process of packing to move!

3 comments:

Fuzzy White Dogs said...

I like the way you used the stick thing (sorry, I'm sure it has a nicer name but I dont know what it would be) to fasten your Einstein coat! Very cute!

Cindy G said...

I was taken by the fastening, too. The coat looks great.

Knitaholictoo said...

Congratulations!! It really looks great all in white, very classic. I finished mine a month ago. It took forever! Glad it done! I love the way you fastened yours.