Elli
Finished
July 19, 2010
August 19, 2010

Elli

Project info
Elizabeth by Kim Hargreaves
Knitting
Coat / Jacket
Me
M
Needles & yarn
US 4 - 3.5 mm
US 6 - 4.0 mm
Lang Yarns Venice
246 yards in stash
17 skeins = 1394.0 yards (1274.7 meters), 850 grams
24
Black
Wolle & Ambiente in Nidderau, Hessen
Notes

TIPS

  • Swatch, swatch, swatch :)
  • Mark the right side of your knitting and leave the marker in the finished piece until you assembled it! I couldn’t tell the right and wrong side from another except for the left and right front (because of the button holes).
  • Keep detailed track of your rows in a tally sheet where you mark every row and use different colours/ signs for increases and decreases. This will help you with the collar and shaping in sleeves & body.
  • The button holes are quite small. If you are planning to use buttons as big as in the original picture, make bigger button holes.
  • Block. The pattern distortes the pieces of the cardigan.

18-07-2010:
Swatched using Venice and 4 mm needles and hit pay dirt at once. Great yarn, knits up nicely and looks beautiful in double moss stitch.

21-07-2010:
Already finished the back of the jacket. What a great pattern! Hargreaves designs wonderful garments. I love the peplum, just so long to look great and feminine. Waistshaping was a bit tricky as I needed a size L in the hips, but I was able to include the extra increase without great problems. For once there is a pattern out there which I don’t have to lengthen! Yay for Ms. Hargreaves!

23-07-2010:
I went on with the front and had to frog a bit - all the short rows and increases and decreases had me all confused. But now the left front grew up to the collar and nearly to the notch in the collar. That will be a challenge again as I don’t really understand the instructions. But I will try and see what happens. Took a break of knitting today to sew some trousers and will be back to knitting presumably by Monday.

27-07-2010:
Took up knitting again today. I couldn’t figure out the notch cast-off so I made a regular cast-off and am happy with it. I might have asked via Ms. Hargreaves website, but it wasn’t worth the effort I think.


Found out today that the yarn won’t be enough for the jacket, though I had 14 balls. With the left front not yet finished (about 20 cm left of the armhole) I used up 7 balls. I started hunting down the yarn today but it seems to be discontinued. I found a source not far from here and sent an email. Hopefully they have 6 balls which should be enough for the sleeves so the different lot won’t matter so much. I hope I get enough yarn to go on with the jacket!

29-07-2010:
Finished the left front and started the right front today.
I was lucky to find a yarn store who still has 6 balls of black Venice. I will go there tomorrow and buy these - I’m sure I will need them for the sleeves.

6-8-2010:
Right front is done and I was left with 3.5 skeins. I am so happy to have purchased the extra-yarn. Even more so as… it’s the same dye lot! I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it! Isn’t this excellent? Started the sleeves yesterday afternoon after the yarn packet arrived and decided to make two at a time to avoid second-sleeve-syndrom from which I often suffered in the past.

12-8-2010:
Now both the sleeves are done and it seems like they have a length suitable for my loooooooong arms.
As the moss stitch makes for distorted pieces, I will block the pieces today. It would be great if more measurements were given for the finished garment, so only the length of the sleeves and the body of the cardigan is given - I might have to calculate some more myself.

16-8-2010:
Started sewing up my Elli. Black sweaters and cardigans aren’t very high on my list of easily to sew up knits. Especially in moss stitch. This seriously sucks. But then - I needed another black cardigan. So I have to suffer. Finished the first side seam while DD took her nap and hope to sew up the second this evening. Have a nice audio book to listen to while sewing.

19-8-2010:
Just set in the second sleeve and thus finished the sewing up. Really - not a great part of knitting that is.
I found out the collar was to short - it didn’t fit the back neck, so I had to rip out the short rows and add four rows of knitting on either side. Afterwards add the short rows again and sew to neck. Perfect.
Now I have to ramage my stock of buttons to find the matching set for this jacket.


This sucks part 2
Sewed on the buttons and tried on the finished jacket. It fits beautifully around hips and waist, has a good length in the body and sleeves - and is waaaaay to big around the bust. It might get a bit better if I put on a shirt when wearing it, which I didn’t for trying it on. With the shirt it won’t slip that much from my shoulders. But it will still be to big in the bust. Shit. I have to take in the side seams and then think about some creative way to make the sleeves still fit.


This sucks part 3
I just found out I knit the wrong size for the front anyway. Instead of knitting L for the hips and then include an extra decrease and in the back and go on in M I knit size L throughout. I have now several options:

  • Burn the thing. No. Not an option. It’s my pretious and I wants it. I needs it.
  • Clip the seams, rip out the fronts and reknit them in the right size. This might or mightn’t solve my problem. Will take years as my holiday is over and I tend to hate knitting I have to ando so severely.
  • Try so take in the side seams and see if it works. The back seems to be to big as well. Hm. I guess I will go for this.

27-8-2010:
I slept over the whole thing some nights and decided to try the sewing smaller. I will measure the armholes, take out the sleeves and take in the side seams. Next I will adjust the size of the armhole and sew in the sleeves again. This might take some time, but I think this is the best way to do it.
If I ripped out the whole fronts, I would most likely never knit them up again. And I suspect it would be to large afterwards anyway.
Still: Great yarn. Great pattern!

16-12-2010:
Finally I took out the sleeves and sewed up the sides to make the cardi fit. Plus I added an additional button (snap fastener) - the three buttons made the front gap a bit, the snap helps. I will now set in the sleeves. Though I measured the armholes to size them up again, I’m not sure I will do that. The jacket feels good with the smaller armholes. I will probably only take out 1 cm or 1.5 cm at the shoulders instead of deepening the hole. Hope it will fit and I can add a lot of pics soon.

4-3-2011:
After wearing it some times I found something more has to be done about the sweater before I can take new pictures. The lapels do not lay flat but stand up. Seems to me there is not enough length in the collar back to allow for the lapels to lay flat. I will open the collar (again) and add more short row shaping. I hope this will solve the problem.

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Finished
July 19, 2010
August 19, 2010
About this pattern
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About this yarn
by Lang Yarns
Bulky
90% Cotton, 10% Cashmere goat
82 yards / 50 grams

39 projects

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  • Project created: July 21, 2010
  • Finished: September 11, 2010
  • Updated: March 4, 2011
  • Progress updates: 6 updates