Feed a fever. . .the Kaffe Long Leaf Coat

Buffy, this heat wave has given me a fever. All I can think about is the cool New England autumn that is just around the corner. And Kaffe's Long Leaf Coat (free download) which he designed, I understand, while he was in Vermont...

        

                                        

... So I noticed last week that Rowan Scottish Tweed 4-ply and DK were on sale at WEBS. Then I noticed  that Rowan Scottish Tweed DK was an eBay Buy-It-Now at Yarnbow. A quick inspection of both online stores showed that only a few colors were left -- DISCONTINUED!

So I leaped. At WEBS I found the following 4-Ply skeins:

4 Machair (light green)
1 Lewes Grey
4 Rust
4 Sunset (red orange)
4 Claret
4 Heath (grey brown)
4 Lobster (dark red)

And the following DK skeins:

2 Sunset (red orange)
3 Thistle (eggplant)
1 Indigo

And at Yarnbow, these colors in DK:

2 Lewes Grey
1 Lobster (dark red)
2 Thatch
3 Purple Mix (rosy)
3 Celtic Mix (dark mossy green)
1 Lavender
2 Herring (blue/grey)
2 Autumn
1 Indigo

Even at heavily discounted prices, these yarns added up fast:  $234 with an extra $13 shipping from Yarnbow. (I asked that the WEBS order be held for pick-up.)

So out came the stash for the other 17 colors of the Long Leaf Coat.

I've got two beautiful mohairs from the WEBS tent sale, one a rusty Italian color blend appropriately called Autumn. And a real fabulous discontinued Valley mohair in a glowing red colorway. I bought packs of ten skeins for $20 a pack.

I did a few swatches:  2 strands DK on #10s, 1 strand DK and 1 strand 4-ply on #10s, 1 strand of DK and 1 strand of 4-ply on #9 needles.  The last swatch gave me a perfect gauge stitch-wise, and a bit shorter gauge row-wise, and was the winner. But the true tipping point was the #9 needles -- so off to the  local yarn shop for Addi Turbo Lace circulars in 40 inch length.

So what's a girl to do? Just cast on!

The 3-inch thistle hem is curling up for there is a purl row to set the bottom of the coat. The turquoise strand is woven in and out every 10 stitches to mark the grid so that I could start the leaf tips in the correct spaces. The dark claret yarn in the center is one of the heavy lifters (along with thistle). I had a 2 oz. skein of Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair yarn. It makes the perfect blend for the dark bottom of the coat. I need 7 more skeins (and one or two more of Thistle DK.) And the small thistle (purple) ball is the Scottish Tweed Thistle DK "unplied," as I am knitting a base of 12 strands--here the GM Spinnery yarn counts as eight, and half of the DK counts as four.  The needlepoint yarn is 3-ply for a total base six, so I can just use two full strands of needlepoint wool, and match and mix the colors easily.

I'm not jumping ship on the Jug Coat. I just need a project that is a bit easier with less thinking to take me into winter. So this is it, and you'd better get knitting because I'm hot on your heels!