Knitting with glass...

Buffy, "katen" has posted pictures of her Jug Coat, made in 1996, on Ravelry!  The colors are wonderful. I gave it a big red heart!

Katen says it is ankle length on her 5'3" frame. I'm only a bit taller, but I guess I will leave the coat it's original length. I've already put it through a skinny-down process, so I really hate to shorten it, too.

She said in an email that she only wears it twice a year and it makes her shoulders hurt because it is so heavy. Hers is made out of wools, and she says on her project page that it is "really heavy."

I remember that "chris4252" selected alternative fibers for her Kaffe Fassett Long Leaf Coat to reduce the weight, and she usees duplicate stitch where she can to lighten it further.

I'm still using wools (with a bit of off-white llama/silk/linen yarn for one strand in the jugs), but where I would have used two strands of 3-ply persian, I have removed a ply from one strand. And, like chris4252,  I decided to cut the weight further by using duplicate stitch to put the dark blue patterns on all the jugs.

To me, the biggest change I made (thus far) to this Jug Coat pattern is one of process. I'll knit separate patches and then combine them once the all are finished. Some have said that the coat will weaken along the seams, but others have said the seams will give the coat much added strength to carry its weight.

The advantages of knitting separate patches are many:
•  A knitting portability that the original all-in-one-piece coat did not allow
•  The ability to rearrange the patches for best color fit
•  Each patch will be able to be blocked to size accurately before seaming
•  The option to add back the deleted rows of vertical patches if I find the coat too skinny
•  The option to shorten coat at last minute by removing row of patches
•   Fewer intarsia ends to tangle -- joy!

But best of all, for me, the coat is reduced to a manageable one-patch-at-a-time process and becomes less overwhelming to contemplate. I can pick the next color of patch, the next jug I want to knit. Choices abound.

The downside? All those seams which must be made with perfection.

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By the way, I saw some Chihuly glass chandeliers at the Visitor's Center in Columbus, Indiana, the small American city known for its big name architecture.  One might have been this chandelier, now on loan by Chihuly to the City of Tacoma. I should try glass knitting needles sometime, but just the thought sets my teeth on edge.