Casting on

Lulu, while you've been planning, I've cast on and have been knitting up a storm. No complex decisions for me, just follow the pattern. Well...with a few exceptions:


1. To get horizontal gauge, I'm using #10, not 10.5. No big deal. #10 needles!!! This is going to go FAST!

2. Then, I'm way shorter than Kaffe's models, and I can't have this masterpiece dragging on the ground. Should I toss out certain stripes? No, I'll make occasional wide stripes just a little narrower. It's sad to not follow the master's instructions to the letter, but can't be helped. KF's gauge yields a 53" long coat. I want mine to be 46". Figure I need to eliminate 22 rows.

3. Those straight red strips at the bottom, with the ridge? That'll be the hem. And do you notice that there's more length on the right than on the left? That's in the pattern: Short rows to create a curved hem. Wider part will be the center (front and back).

MISMATCHED STRIPES

Another big decision: Should I follow KF and have mismatched stripes on the right and left? Oh dear, this is hard for an accountant. We like things tidy and reconciled, orderly, matched. And if I matched up the stripes, I could pick one stripe sequence and knit the entire body of the coat in the round. I hate to purl; I could knit in the round, and then steek.

Ahhh-- but here's what Kaffe Fassett says: Zoë [Hunt, his collaborator] and I did do one version of the big-sleeved coat with an uninterrupted striped back, but I felt that the wide stripe running horizontally without a break was not as flattering as the broken, unmatched one in the pattern given here. More flattering! That's for me!

TWO IN ONE BLOW

It turns out that the stripe sequence for the Left Front and Right Back are the same. And for the other two sections (RF and LB), you simply REVERSE the stripe sequence! How simple is that? So I'm knitting the LF and RB at the same time.

And how do you like these knock-your-socks-off colors?! Aren't they wonderful?