This is the baby jacket I've been knitting for the 'Blind Assassin' challenge over on Knit the Classics. It is meant to represent the wartime effort by the women of Port Ticonderoga, to knit baby garments for the 'Starving Armenians and Overseas Refugees' at their Thursday knitting group. I thought that a traditional baby's matinee jacket would fit in pretty good with the time line, and in keeping with the make-do wartime spirit, the yarn is from my stash and the buttons from the op shop. I really enjoyed the book, and the thought process for the crafting challenge...(I've tried to be careful not to plot spoil for anybody still reading the book :-))The pattern is based on Elizabeth Zimmermann's February Sweater from her Knitter's Almanac. I have started to knit this sweater a few times before, but have always been unhappy with the way my garter stitch yoke looks...the increases look scruffy and holey!...this photo shows one of my attempts :-(
...not wanting to give up on it (especially after seeing how awesome others looked over on the Zimmermania blog), I decided to change the part of the pattern that wasn't working for me. I figured that I could still make pretty much the same jacket, with a different yoke. I lined up my increases in a row at the 4 seams (in other words, made it a raglan) and continued on with the gull pattern for the rest. It is still made top down and 'practically seamless on 2 needles' as per Elizabeth's instructions :-) I did the raglan yoke in stocking stitch, as I thought it would look neater, but I'm going to try doing the same in garter stitch.
Thanks, thanks, thanks! to EZ, for helping to give us knitters the confidence to explore different ideas, when something isn't working the way we want it to :-D
