Swing Jacket Monday

Beth says, "I've finished the yoke it's blocked and on gauge - hurray! Half way up the 1st sleeve and like you, wondering if I'm liking how big the cuff is.  No pictures yet - I hope to post something this week.  I've just had one of those weeks where everything hits at once."

Fern says, "Not much to report from me although there's a gauge swatch in my near future. I took a class a few weeks ago about knitting to fit properly and part two is in two weeks. At this one we come in with gauge swatches for projects we plan to make and we'll get a little help in tweaking the pattern as necessary to fit us specifically. So I'll be knitting a gauge swatch for the swing jacket. Who knows, I may be casting on before month-end."

Shelagh writes wearily, "This is remarkable, but true, my yarn is still backordered."

Here is another view of the Interweave Knits Swing Jacket --

this photo is from Two Swans Yarn.

This week, I reworked the right side, which I decided not long ago that I'd somehow miscaluculated, ending up with an armhole that was much longer than the second one.  While I was knitting, I finished listening to an audiobook I'd impulsively picked up at the library,

an excellent reading of the novel by "Poirot" himself, David Suchet.  His own voice is quite unlike that which he adopts as Poirot (I once saw an interview in which he declined to come out of character, as it took him so long to get back into it), a rather calm, rich baritone instead of Poirot's soft, almost whispery tenor, and the voices he uses for the other characters, including the women, are equally varied and effortless -- except, I must say, that for Col. Race, Poirot's sidekick for this particular novel, who has I thought an extremely annoying upper-class-twit voice ("Bwing hew to the smoking woom immediately!") that only distracted from the easy brilliance of the others.  I'd read this book before, many years ago, but am much more familiar with the delightful 1978 movie with Peter Ustinov as Poirot -- was rather disconcerted for a while at how much had been changed for the movie, but not terribly surprised, as I'm sure it's difficult to pack that much story into two hours -- the audio version runs to eight and a half!  Many of the characters in the book were dropped entirely, such as Mrs. Allerton and her son Tim, and others, like Rosalie Otterbourne and Miss Bowers, were merged with lesser characters to streamline the story.  I think that Suchet's Poirot is brilliant, though, and so I am equally happy with this audio version (except, as I've said, Col. Race, which to Suchet's credit didn't even sound like him!).

But the swing jacket, that's what I was talking about.  I worked the first sleeve yesterday -- yes, you read that right.  I cast on for it Saturday night while David and I watched "National Treasure" -- I had to pull it out, though, as I was so busy watching Sean Bean -- excuse me, I mean paying attention to the complex storyline, that I accidentally picked up the long tail I'd left for sewing up the sleeve later, and began knitting with that, so I had to start again.  Being stockinette, it goes very quickly, even with the cap shaping.

I pinned everything together this morning for a fitting.  The weather has been very grey these past few weeks, and so I wandered around the house rather gloomily, trailing long streamers of yarn like a madwoman.  The gloom, I hasten to add, is due to the weather, not the swing jacket, which is coming along nicely.

This is the sleeve width as written for the 44 in./112 cm size.  The sizing I think is not terribly generous -- this is five inches of ease on me.  The garment tends to hang open about 5 inches or so, just as in the IK photos, which means that most of the ease, as might be expected in a swing jacket, is towards the back.

The shape of the sleeve is somewhat deceptive.  It looks fairly straight when laid flat, as below, but on an arm the weight of the knitted piece make the bell shape much more obvious, as you can see in the photo above. 

If the weather stays this dull, I might even get to wear the jacket before autumn!

Comments

[David]

So.... Not going to redo in a larger size?

[Jeanne]

Yikes! a dude!

[Katy]

I really enjoy "A Bluestocking Kits"! I linked from Mason-Dixon Knitting weeks ago (The name got my attention!), and I have been reading your blog regularly ever since.

I bought the Fall 2005 IK before I even started knitting just because I loved the Pearl Buck Swing Jacket so much. I'm enjoying reading about your progress. I hope I will have the skills and experience to make it in the fall.

Another reason I enjoy your blog is that I'm a bookworm and an Anglophile too. Don't you hate that Sean Bean always plays the bad guy?

[Stephanie]

Coming out of lurkdom here. I've been reading your Swing Jacket progress. It's on my list and is rapidly moving to the top - once I decide on yarn and finish some other projects, that is.

Quick question . . .when you refer to the sizing issues do you mean the sleeve or the overall jacket sizing? I recall at one point you thought the sleeve might be too wide at the bottom. How does the sleeve fit and feel now that you've made it?

Thanks for sharing -
Stephanie

[Jeanne]

Katy, the Swing Jacket I think looks harder than it is. The shaping is actually very simple, and the pleat -- possibly the most daunting piece to a new knitter -- is more fiddly than difficult.

I still wish that Sean Bean had been cast as Aragorn instead of as Boromir in the "Lord of the Rings" cycle. Not that I have anything against Viggo Mortensen, but Sean Bean was more my mental picture of Aragorn. Apparently here in the US we've seen mostly his bad guys -- in the UK, he's done a lot of good guys. He just does bad so well!

Stephanie, welcome out of lurkerdom! My Swing Jacket is still safety-pinned together, and missing a sleeve, so I can't commit myself just yet, but I would say that unless you are VERY slim, a generous size would be best. Even though it has lots of room according to the tape measure, it doesn't quite feel so. The sleeve isn't as huge as I thought it would be from the schematic measurements, possibly because it tapers fairly quickly. I'm still tempted to lengthen the sleeve -- this would only be a matter of taking out the top shaping on the one I've already done, and adding about an inch.

[The Bec Half of Glamorouse]

HI there, I'm de-lurking too (via Suse at Pea Soup). Winter is coming fast down here, and after a long break from knitting (my youngest are twins and, well, not much else got done here since 2002!) my fingers are itching to make something for ME!
Love the jacket and subscribed to Interweave, organised the pattern and ordered my wool. Even though I probably won't start until yours is finished, I'd like to be a Pearl Buck Knitalonger too, if that's ok?

[suse]

Ooh look, I was popping over to check out your progress and mention that I might have a new knit-alonger for you, when I see that she (Bec) has beaten me to it herself.

Exciting to see your jacket ON!

[Marie]

Sean Bean..yum...that reminds me, I need to hunt down some movies where he is not Boromir...
The jacket looks terrific. I really like how the sleeve falls and the shape of it. Can't wait to see it finished. :)

[Kat]

Your jacket looks great so far. Can't wait to see it finished.

The sizing was what definitely got me when I made this jacket. My mom is a 36 and petite, so I worried that the next size up would be too big. When it was done it felt okay on me and I'm smaller. I then started worrying that it might be too small. Thankfully it fits her just fine...if she wears a thin top underneath. Maybe it will stretch.

Unfortunately she didn't like how the hook and eye closure was done, so that will be fixed sometime in the fall. Does this mean I'm technically not finished?