Waiting for the mailman

Buffy, this Long Leaf Coat will be the "full-blown" affair -- almost. Kaffe's coats suffer some criticism for being too big and unwearable. You've addressed that issue with Juliet, and so have I with the Jug Coat. Now I meet it again, and this time I'm opting to knit this LLC just as the pattern is written.

Yes, it will be big, and I know that the size of this coat has caused some knitters problems -- or not!  Mette uses her coat as a blanket from time to time! And Rraveler RoulaV said she "... went merrily along knitting and not checking. By the time I realized the coat would fit a six footer(I’m 5’5”) it was too late. I now have a beautiful expensive throw with sleeves...."


And check out this Ravelry thread on changing the shape of Kaffe's patterns. I might take my own suggestion and gather the shoulders in as shown in the Swedish Book Sticka Med Kaffe.


I swatched this project in various ways, and I'm using one strand of Rowan Scottish Tweed DK and one strand of Rowan Scottish Tweed 4-ply together on size nine needles to give me the width-wise gauge, which also shortens the length-wise guage a small bit. That will give me a big, swinging coat that might work on my 5'5" frame. And if the coat is too long, I'll wear boots. If it's altogether a miss, I, too, will have a lovely couch throw that can be used as a snuggly.


I did find that when using 2 3-ply strands of Paternayan needlepoint wool together that the guage expanded a bit, so when using this particular combination, I cut back to five strands.


I'm knitting from "the tangle." I found that I like to use about 4-foot lengths of yarn and just pull the combinations from the tangle that is the mark of an intarsia project.

The knitting stopped this morning. I'm now ready to add color "2" and luckily I found 4 skeins of vintage Rowan Kaffe Kid Silk in gold that is perfect for this orange-tipped leaf.  I'm waiting for them to come in the mail. It will make a interesting texture change, and maybe a slight gauge change across the  leaf.


And the wait will also give me a chance to get an enlarged paper copy of the pattern. Right now I have been using an blown-up image on my computer screen. I get up and  move to the computer room from the knitting spot to count small squares on the screen to determine the location of  of the next color change--all too slow.

A printed copy is being sent to me by the folks at Rowan in Great Britian, and I will take it to the copy shop for enlargement immediately. Then I will be able to color in the pattern, mark off rows, and speed along.