I made it to the top of the last big set of spirals on the second double-knit jacket front today, which means that I'm about a third of the way from finishing the second front and starting on the back.
Once the fronts and the backs are done, I'm going to work on the collar next, I think. Knitting patterns always tell you to work the collar last, even on projects like this jacket which use a seamless construction method (ie: you keep adding on to the main shape until the entire garment is done, instead of making smaller pieces and sewing them together). I've always found it odd that you're expected to knit ~10 rows onto something as heavy and big as an entire hip-length jacket. Doesn't it make more sense to do the collar as soon as I can — once the shoulders are done?
Some of this grousing is because now that the fronts are getting done (and supposedly the upper back right behind them), the sleeves are coming up. I hate knitting sleeves directly onto garment bodies. They get twisted as you work them in the round, so if you are having a longish knitting session you need to untwist the work from time to time. Then again, I don't understand the modern world's horror of sewing seams. Whatever works best, really. It's not like seams are difficult or anything, not compared to the hoops people make themselves jump through to avoid them.
Still, this pattern calls for sleeves knit in from the armhole down, worked in the round, so that's what I'll do. If nothing else, it will be too much time and arithmetic to do them any other way in the time constraint I have.
Four more weeks until the trip to New York City. Which really means, come this time next Sunday, I better be working on the first sleeve.
Wish me luck.
Once the fronts and the backs are done, I'm going to work on the collar next, I think. Knitting patterns always tell you to work the collar last, even on projects like this jacket which use a seamless construction method (ie: you keep adding on to the main shape until the entire garment is done, instead of making smaller pieces and sewing them together). I've always found it odd that you're expected to knit ~10 rows onto something as heavy and big as an entire hip-length jacket. Doesn't it make more sense to do the collar as soon as I can — once the shoulders are done?
Some of this grousing is because now that the fronts are getting done (and supposedly the upper back right behind them), the sleeves are coming up. I hate knitting sleeves directly onto garment bodies. They get twisted as you work them in the round, so if you are having a longish knitting session you need to untwist the work from time to time. Then again, I don't understand the modern world's horror of sewing seams. Whatever works best, really. It's not like seams are difficult or anything, not compared to the hoops people make themselves jump through to avoid them.
Still, this pattern calls for sleeves knit in from the armhole down, worked in the round, so that's what I'll do. If nothing else, it will be too much time and arithmetic to do them any other way in the time constraint I have.
Four more weeks until the trip to New York City. Which really means, come this time next Sunday, I better be working on the first sleeve.
Wish me luck.