Last night I sewed the pieces of my jacket, “Touch” together at last! Overall, I am really in love with this pattern, which you can find in Kim Hargreaves' new book, North:
http://www.kimhargreaves.co.uk/
It was clever of Kim Hargreaves to devise a slip stich pattern to give the look of a plaid jacket without the need to use intarsia or fair isle techniques. The main color, black, is carried up and worked every two rows through the entire jacket, which makes the slip-stitch easy and minimizes weaving-in ends. Hargreaves’ original color scheme uses Rowan felted tweed in “Seafarer, Carbon, and Avocado”:
I made multiple yarn substitutions, keeping only the “Seafarer” as the pattern required. Being a Chanel fan, I covet a charcoal and pink tweed jacket, so I used Rowan felted tweed “Clover”, color 162, instead of the yellow-green “Avocado.” A wonderful knitting friend had gifted this discontinued colorway of pink to me. One color substitution often leads to another—the pale pink required a paler grey to balance it, so I mixed the Rowan felted tweed “Carbon” yarn with a laceweight strand of light grey tweed to soften it:
Because metallics are such a huge trend in fashion right now, I also added a tiny hint of metallic sparkle by throwing in a row or two of grey Rowan kidsilk haze eclipse every now and then, which coordinates with the metal buttons of the jacket.
The genius of Kim Hargreaves' "Touch" is that she combines both moss stitch and slip stitch at the same time. This creates a sturdy tweed fabric which supports a formal jacket shape. Most plaid jacket patterns rely on intarsia and so are knitted in stockinette. This can create a floppy look in your outerwear. Kim's tight moss stitch in felted tweed holds its shape much better and gives that British riding jacket look. And yet you can still get a subtle plaid effect through the vertical black stripes the slip--stitch creates.
Touch does have some waist-shaping but I added more as I knitted it to accomodate my hour-glass figure. In the end, to ensure a clooser fit, I steeked the armholes, reducing the width by one inch on each side at the armscythe and I also brought the sides of the jacket in by 1/4 inch on each sidefrom waist to armhole to make it easier to belt:
For as great as this pattern is, I will say that there are three aspects that require serious fiddling. I will address those 3 issues in this post for anyone who is thinking of knitting this pattern themselves:
#1: How to fit the sleeves:
Wide sleeves are in fashion right now, and this jacket is meant to have shorter, wider sleeves than are flattering for many of us. I cast on 13 fewer stitches (-3 inches) than the pattern called for at the cuff , and gradually increased up to the desired amount for the final sleeve cap required for the smallest size. I wear a size large in Kim's patterns so this helped to keep the sleeve narrow.
My philosophy is, if you are making a jacket with a distinctive pattern, the eye will focus on the sleeve area more so keep it thin to downplay focus there. Unfortunately, in spite of my efforts, the top of the sleeve head is still on the wide and bulky side, so I may have to take it out and decrease some of the width there, but I will live with it for a few days and see how it "wears" before I make up my mind.
#2: Lining up the stripes in the sleeves with the stripes on the body of the sweater:
The light pop of the pink stripe stands out against the dark background so it's really obvious if the match is off between the sleeves and cardigan fronts. I tested the matching by basting my first completed sleeve into the finished body of the sweater and was shocked to discover how short the sleeves were and how off the match was when I followed the pattern instructions as written. Perhaps my row guage was off? Thank heavens I made the discovery before knitting another sleeve! The solution was to pick up the stitches at the cuff and add an additional 18 rows down to the wrist to get the length right on my arm. Still, I found it challenging to get the stripes to match from the body to the sleeves. My fix was to shorten my sleeve cap by 4-6 rows and lengthen the sleeve cuff a bit more. (I recommend using a provisional cast on to start your sleeve to help you adjust the length to your taste).
I was able to match up the stripes when the garment was resting flat, but you will see that the moment you wear the cardigan, the matching shifts again. In the photo above, you can see that where my arm is raised on the right, the sleeve stripes align with the stripes on the front perfectly, but on the left, where my hand hangs at my side, the match is a bit off. I finally stopped fiddling with it when I looked at the original pattern photo and realized Kim had not been able to match them either:
#3: Aligning the stripes across the two fronts of the cardigan:
I sewed a ribbon facing behind the button and buttonhole bands to help stabilize the fronts and facilitate straight lines across. I have never used ribbon to stabilize cardigan edges before and was humbled to discover these handstitching techniques require practice! Luckily, all my hand work is on the inside of the garment, so no one will ever see it but me and you:
The great thing about securing a ribbon beneath a button band is that you create a really stable surface to attach your buttons to. I used 8 buttons instead of the 7 called for in the pattern, and I also sewed snaps at the top of the collar and the bottom edge of the cardigan to help preserve a straight edge across.
The hard part about sewing ribbon behind your buttonhole band is making hand-sewn buttonholes in a ribbon. I have never cut into a ribbon or hand-sewed buttonholes in my life, and the thick inflexible surface of my ribbon was a challenge. Little frayed edges at the hole in the center of the ribbon kept tangling with my hand-stitches, not to mention all the fuzzy ends from the yarn that poked through. Next time, after I cut the hole into the ribbon, I will secure the edges with fray check! I was not sure of how to create an even tension on my knotted handstitches, which were used to finish the edges of the button hole as I had not practiced that before, but you have to start somewhere when learning new skills, so I dived in. I am afraid the buttonhole facing looks like the work of a true beginner:
As bad as it looks, I am in love with the function of this facing. It fixes the jacket buttons securely in place by acting as a second, tighter layer behind the loose gap of knitted buttonholes on the outside of the jacket which were formed as yarn-overs and so will never be precise. The buttonhole interfacing prevents the buttons from wiggling, which is essential when you are trying to match prominent stripes across a buttoned surface.
These facings keep the front stripes aligned for good, which adds to the overall finished look of the outer garment. Best of all, no one will ever see the hand-work inside but you and me!
Although these finishing details cost extra time, they added to my excitement about wearing this jacket and owning it as an heirloom piece. The cool elegance of the color scheme reminds me of a runway knit, making this a treasure to wear for years to come!
