Coat of Many Colors-Almost Done

Yesterday afternoon Jane brought her knitting in for me to see. The Coat of Many Colors from knit, Swirl! This is the Clematis colourway. I have added the kits to the website and more kits are on order.

The finished product is going to be beautiful. Jane is going to look sharp wearing this at the Knitters Fair!!

It is time to sew up the sleeve seams and across the back shoulder. You can see the gap where Jane's shirt is showing though. This will be sewn.

There are a lot of ends to sew in but when you see the finished jacket it is totally worth it.

Here are a few answers to questions you have been asking

1. Is it hard to knit? All you need to know is knit, purl, increase, decrease, cast on and cast off.
2. Is it challenging? Yes. You are starting with a lot of stitches (over 600) and decreasing every row. The garments in the book are a leap of faith. As you are knitting you have no clue how things are going to work and you have to trust the pattern. This is not a pattern that you can make changes to. You have to work it as the book says. Remember, challenging does not mean hard. It just means that this isn't something you are going to knock out in a couple of weeks. You have to watch what you are doing but the end result is something that people will stop you on the street to look at.
3. Is the pattern easy to follow? The patterns are very wordy which is a good thing. Each step is explained very well. There is also a chart that shows how many stitches you should have on every row.
4. Are there any tricks? Stitch markers is one. The pattern says to put stitch markers in certain spots and these are a life saver. Photocopy the chart. There are many pages to each pattern and this way you can lay the chart out as you are reading the pattern-this will show you the number of stitches. Make lots of notes. This way you will know exactly where you are if you lay your work down for a couple of days. 

I laid the book out and took a few pictures for you of the graphs. These aren't clear on purpose-I'm not trying to share numbers with you. I just wanted to show how well written and knitter friendly the patterns are.

This is the graph for the sleeves. It makes absolutely no sense looking at it but when you are knitting the coat it makes total sense.

While Jane was in the store she picked up yarn for another project. Thank goodness someone is getting some knitting done. There should be boxes arriving soon from Lynda and Wannietta as well. More knitting pictures because there hasn't been anything from me. I'm thinking of knitting a scarf just so I have something to show off.