80s Striped 3-Colour Jacket! First Phase completed...

Dear friends

I hope all is well with you. I have been a bit silent lately because I am planning my departure and I am so nervous! But I knitting like crazy, as I told you previously. I wanted to do something difficult before parting, because I am not sure if I'll have my knitting needles with me inmediately. It depends on what I can pack in my suitcase... Argh :) Now, back to the project. I found this wonderful pattern on Bernat's website. I never thought I could do one of these, when I first signed up to access the patterns... but hey, it looks like I can, now! I am improving! Yeahhhh ;)

This one is called "Lu Lu Bernat Child Jacket". You can easily find it on Google. It asks for some very precise yarn, but I used what I have got at home. The pattern gives 4 different sizes: 2/4/6/8. I chose size 4. This asked for 2 50g balls of main colour and 1 50g ball of each contrasting colour (all in all, 3 colours). I had this three colours, each in a big ball of 100g. I thought... wow, I can do this :)

The first problem came with the stripes. The pattern asked to carry colours up the work sides instead of cutting the yarn, but I haven't been able to do this, because the fabric pulled in too much or either was too loose! I'll have to practice this. So, I decided to cut the yarn each time. This means now I have to weave in everything... or to make strong knots and snip with scissors... hehehe ;) The "Stripe Pattern" says: 3 rows in MC, 3 in CC1 and 3 in CC2. I thought... if I want white to be my main colour, why not giving it one more row? I am not sure this is correct, but that's what I did. 4 rows in white, 3 rows in blue, 3 rows in red. The jacket has a garter edge to it which must be knitted with smaller needles. In fact the patterns says you need two sets of needles: 4.5mm and 5.5mm. Another problem! My 5.5mm were being used for the Ocean Ribbing Scarf, so... I used 6mm! Luckily the result is not too bad!

The back looks very nice. The front sides involved some shaping, at the same time as the stripe pattern. I had to calculate when to change colours AND when to increase or decrease... wow. It was exhausting! The problem came with the sleeves. I always forget to change to big needles after the garter edge, so ruining the beginning every time. Frustrating! Also, it was very exhausting to count rows for the increases. It said: increase at each end of needle on 5th row, then 3 times on every other 4th row, then 3 times on every other 6th row. Yeeeeeeeeeew! Did I have to count! I had to unravel a whole sleeve because I misread the pattern (at end of the needle) and only increased at the END of the needle, not at EACH end... gosh!

Well, here are the parts. I hope you like the result! It looks so 80s... I love it :) Now comes the difficult part. My book says I have to weave in ends and block BEFORE seaming. Good... but this is acrylic, and I have read I can't steam-block synthetic yarns! Does this mean I have to wet-block with a simple water-spray bottle? I have never done this before, so... I am a bit nervous. The last phase will be picking up stitches to do the collar and the front bands. It say I have to sew a zipper but I have no idea how to do that. Maybe I should do button holes instead? I am not sure... would love to hear your suggestions...

Love, Flavio