Thursday, October 21, 2010

Military campaign

Which took me two weeks to the hour to complete from casting on... And that is with considerable time spent on the fall set and the knitting lessons.
It was love at first sight, as I opened the fall issue of the Rebecca magazine I knew I had to have this, soon, no matter what. Was it the cables? The fitted shape? The peplum? All traits I would go for, and together they almost made me swoon. As soon as I got home, didn't even took my coat off, but I got on the net and ordered the yarn...

The original in the magazine was made from GGH Camello which I didn't think I could get fast enough and an affordable price. (Later it turned out I was wrong, one of the two yarn stores that sells good yarn in Hungary 1001 fonal does have it, but that is an other story.)

Anyway I wanted it from something tweedy, and I was on a blue phase at the moment I turned to my trusted source for tweedy, heather pure wool or wool/silk yarn. Kingcraigs fabric. I have so many of their yarn it is a surprise that this is the first actual item I finished from all of those... Oh, I've knitted with them all right, I many more swatches than I care to count. I still have to finish my Venezia, and block the cabled rusty orange cardigan... But I know by now that I love this yarn. Coming directly from the factory on scones (most of the time) it feels a little scartchy, maybe even rough, not to mention it smells. But it already starts ro softens while knitting, and after washing... oh, after washing it blooms gorgeously, it softens up greatly, and the smell (which comes from the natural oils in the wool itself) goes away. Of course it will never be as soft as, let say Malabrigo, but I bet because of the tighter spin, it will hold up much better in the long run. It definetly does not relax as many of the other, softer yarns does.

Every time I shop with these guys is a great experience... Just like this time, I incidently clicked on the wrong item and bought the smaller, 500 gramm cone (instead of the 800 I would needed). Since I have a bit of history with Shaun and Jamie, I didn't panic, but shot out a note that please, please send the bill for and ship the bigger one. Instead of the invoice there came a note... oh we already shipped the cone, but we are sending you the extra 300 gramms free of charge for being such a good customer. All came in good time. Thank you so much.

We've been exchanging a few letters on how to introduce their yarn in here, if there is a bigger quantity they would give a considerable discount. If anyone interested let me know, I would gladly organize it.

When it came I was a bit disappointed, which was completely my fault, as I knew this yarn (though in different color) because it was thinner than I expected, and since it is a Jacket, would do well to readjust the pattern for a much smaller gauge... But then the idea hit and I doubled the yarn, and the gauge was just slightly smaller than in the pattern itself (which was in one size, size 40, that would be a bit too big anyway).

With the pattern I also run into a bit of trouble as it was written in German. A language I used to learn in highschool, but forgot a great deal ever since. Regula came to my rescue and went through the pattern with me one saturday afternoon. At that day I got home cast on, and it was blocking within two weeks to the hour.

I only modified a couple of things. lengtened the peplum by one inch, the sleeves a bit. The cables on the back belt, the shoulder stripes and at the wrist are mirrored. And added a crocheted buttonhole and buttonband, because I didn't like how the knitted fabric did not had enough hold for the buttons and buttonholes. Not to mention with the additional inch it fits me better.

Because of the big gauge the knitting went really fast.

The yarn: Kingcraigs fabrics wool/silk aran, Navy blue fleck.

Needles: 5.00 mm addi circulars. 5 mm bamboo DPNs for the sleeves.

Buttons from the Röltex chain.

Pattern: Rebecca, 2010 fall

Pictures are shot by my personal photographer, my son. Thanks Chris.

BTW. I have a new haircut, did you notice?

3 comments:

Brussels Chronicles said...

Good hair ! and great jacket ! I love the buttons you picked : they go really well with the whole style !

Spundun said...

The jacket is wonderful and fits you so well!

Love the hair too!

soknitpicky said...

Thank you for visiting my blog and for the nice comment. I *love* your jacket too! I am so inspired!