Amanda Knits

Whew. One month start to finish in sport weight yarn and a yarn eating st (double seed). I think this may be a personal record.

These photos were taken at 2 am, that's why they're not that great. We don't have a lot of lightening in our home because we get so much natural light during the day...it makes photographing things at 2 am difficult.

This coat was knit to sort of serve as a prototype for future coats, and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. No, not pretty pleased, very pleased.

Not Scowling

I'm not scowling. I was trying to smile, but then my boyfriend was having issues with the camera and I looked confused and...well.

Swing Coat Style

I modified this from a box coat to a swing coat.

Adjusting

I am very pleased with how this has turned out. I ended up seaming the shoulders early on, to check size.

I knit the sleeves from the top down because I wasn't sure I was going to have enough yarn. I seamed the armholes into place, and continued knitting. After I'd finished the sleeves, I realized they were WAY too tight. So I ripped out 40 rows and added eight sts to each sleeve. (I was very happy I'd worked them top down at that point!)

Then I had to knit the cuffs and collars. I soon realized that I was going to run out of yarn. There was really no way to get this yarn... So I ended up knitting the cuff pieces on size 6 needles (same as the body), but I knit the cuffs on size 8s. I also made the cuffs 1/4" shorter each than the pattern called for.

I had to ease the collar into place three times before I got it right.

I ended up with about 6 feet of yarn left over, which meant that the single crochet trim around all of the edges was not going to happen.

My boyfriend was an extremely patient manikin, since I used him to tack the collar into place!

I had decided early on that I was not going to do covered buttons. Covered buttons running down a chest of my size...no.

I did think I was going to do a single snap at the neck, but the collar already adds so much weight and heft there that it looks better (and feels more comfortable!) open. Plus, there is enough fabric to pull the coat closed around me. I was shocked at how much WEIGHT the cuffs and collars added to the coat. Wow.

I do wish the sleeves were a bit wider. I knit using the pattern and Knit to Fit as guides. But I suspect that women in the 50s were supposed to have very slim arms. I am a muscular person and super slim sleeves won't work on me. Heck, even the thinnest models are wearing looser sleeves. The silhouette has changed.

Considering that this was my first time taking a retro pattern and reworking it myself, I'm pretty pleased. Actually, I'm very pleased.

I bought the yarn on sale from Elann more than 4 years ago. Accounting for a small discount and shipping, total cost of the yarn was under $50. $50 for a fall coat! I'm sold!

(My friend Milinda gave me a lot of advice and guidance on this coat. MANY thanks to her!)

Fashion Shot

I'm currently trying to knit something that looks like this.

This pattern is from the Winter 1952/53 issue of McCall's Needlework.

I have changed the style from a box coat to a swing coat. I've obviously had to change the yarn and the gauge and the size because I am not built like a woman from the 50s. This is my first time doing all of those things at once. The pattern and the book Knit to Fit are great help, but this is, in many ways, a leap of faith.

One other problem...the yarn.

I originally started by using Austermann Barkarole, this lovely 70 merino/20 silk/10 cashmere blend yarn in a gorgeous eggplant color. However, after I knit up two balls I realized I was never going to have enough to finish the coat. I used yarn estimate charts. I did some loosey-goose head estimates. I did some more complicated pen-and-paper estimates. I pulled out pen and paper, sketched, figured out necessary yardage... Still, no dice. I was definitely going to be short.

So I dug around in my stash. I should mention that in November it will have been two years since I've bought any new yarn. I have a ton of really nice stuff in my stash, and my experience living abroad made me realize that I don't need (and don't want) any more yarn than I have. So my entire goal was to knit with stashed yarn only.

I found some Ren Ny Ull Superwash Sport in red. I bought this on closeout from Elann in August. August 2004. I had 19-20 balls. This has been partially knit into a long ago discarded sweater, so I pulled it out. I consulted numerous "how much yarn do I need charts" and decided that I might have just enough to finish the coat. As a backup, I searched around for any other sites I could buy the yarn from and didn't find any.

I'm currently converting a box coat pattern from the 1952/1953 issue of McCall's Needlework into a swing coat. It's going well so far, but I'm knitting from stash and a bit concerned about running out of yarn...