AJ's grand day out

Finally there is sun!

Pattern: Apricot Jacket from Rebecca 27, duh
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (80% cotton/20% merino wool) in teal, 3 1/4 skeins.
Gauge: itty bitty on 6/4.25mm needles

Everyone's seen it, everyone's made it. Judging from photos on various sites (it's amazing how different the same sweater can look on different people), and from the magazine itself, the sweater looked like it was running a little big, or had the potential to. I mean look at the photo in the mag: it's probably knit in the smallest size and the model is wearing a frilly, poufy blouse underneath the sweater and it still looks a bit roomy. Dare I even say...ill-fitting? There I said it. Also very very long in the arms. All Rebecca patterns end in very long arms, so this time I took care to revise that.

Notes on knitting AJ:

• Update: I didn't mention the pattern error because my English copy included a correction insert in the magazine. The correction is still on the rebecca site, despite reports that it no longer exists. You just have to search through their news archives. Find it here.
  
  The error is on the back pattern. It should say "10 sts. pattern A, 34 sts. (instead of 40 sts.) as they appear..."  That's it.
  
  
• Substituted yarn, again. Cotton Fleece was nice. Great yardage. A little splitty but I guess all cotton is like that to some extent.
  
  

• Went down two needle sizes for a better fit on my person. I'm practically collapsible so any bit of roominess and suddenly I'm wearing a deflated balloon.
  
  
• Stitch markers are powerful allies. Place a stitch marker before starting row 1 of chart, and if you follow the chart up to row 7, an extra stitch will appear after each row before or after the marker (depending on whether you're working left or right side). Once row 8 is completed, move the marker in front of the yarn-over made in row 7, and repeat chart from row 1.  

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• Wow was that above bullet confusing or what. Sorry. I wrote that because the textual instructions in the magazine had me spinning. It was trying to explain the chart but just made it more muddled instead. I would have fared better without having read the text. Just use stitch markers my friends, repeating 1-8, and keeping the yarn-overs in diagonal pattern, until pattern A and B are separated by 2 purls, and then continue repeating rows 9-10. At the point the yarn-overs will be stacked on top of each other.
  
  
• Used the back piece as my visual guide for knitting the fronts, as the front left is the same as the left half of the back, and vice-versa. Again the textual instructions confused me a lot.
  
  
• Reduced the length of the body ribbing by about 5 cm. Same for the sleeves.
  
  
• The front bands, that go in the back. Ah yes. Those things. It was a very ad hoc process. First of all, I disregarded their call to join another ball of yarn to cast on one single stitch. That seemed silly, so I just made an increase. 
  
  After knitting the prescribed amount of cm's I kept the stitches live on both sides in case. Just, in case. As I was getting ready to sew them to the back piece, I ended up knitting an extra several cm's more to the bands. They seemed too short that the back neck area would likely bunch up when seamed. So I would seam a little, working from outside in, then knit more length to the bands, a little on one side, then on the other, seamed a little here, and little there, until they met right in the center. Then I grafted the bands together.
  
  
• Seaming: the pattern has purl selvedges for the sleeves and body ribbing, which means come seam time you'll be mattress stitching reverse stockinette. In the sleeves it leaves a very visible seam, almost like a ditch running underneath your arm, which can either be interpreted as decorative or ugly. I thought it looked fine, but technically I found it more difficult to seam reverse stockinette. If I were to do this again, I'd knit, rather than purl, the selvedges.
  
  
• Did a slip-stitch crochet edging along the fronts and neck, making button holes on the front right. Pain in the butt. I find slip-stitching to be difficult because I always have trouble pulling that yarn through the loop, it naturally wants to tighten as I'm drawing the yarn through.
  
  
• Sewed 6 buttons on the front left, going from top to bottom instead of bottom to top. I actually crocheted enough loops for 8, but decided I'd never close the two bottom buttons and it looked funny to have them just dangling.
  
  Very careful consideration (aka preening in front of the mirror) went into deciding where to put the first button, and how far apart. I wanted a deep V-neck, so I started the first button at the point where the ribs stopped, and sewed on about every 3 cm's. It took many many many hours to sew on these few measley buttons, just a clunky, yicky process that I did not like it at all. But now I've learned and the next time it won't be nearly half as bad. 

I really like how AJ turned out. Fits well, color is nice, perfect for spring (IF IT EVER ARRIVES). I am suddenly in awe of just how labor-intensive knitting is, especially with a piece like this. Next time I'm going to start the clock everytime I pick up a project. Forget about materials, using labor alone something like AJ would cost about a gaBILLION dollars.

AJ mows too!

I love it when I don't have to figure out what to wear to work the next day.

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Filed Under: Completed Projects | Rebecca 27 | Apricot Jacket