FO: Kevin's Smokin' Jacket

Hey, look at that! Kevin got a new sweater! Which means I made good on my promise to knit him a sweater that actually fits - and in record time. Bulky weight yarn, big needles, and a simple pattern help. Not to mention the exponential excitement that my dear husband expressed as it was coming together.

This yarn is absolutely a dream. I love everything about it. The color is called Quail and it's a wonderful subtle shade of dusty blue that Kevin really loves, too. Even though it's 100% sheep's wool it's incredibly soft and springy yet durable and warm at the same time. This is a credit to the Columbia breed wool it's spun from. I just learned this: Columbia was the first breed of sheep developed and certified in the United States. It was breed to be a two in one sheep: good for meat (and lots of it) and wool (and lots of it) that would thrive in the Western high dessert terrain. Furthermore, I learned that this breed of sheep was first conceived and developed by the original owner of the very same ranch that produced this yarn. The history and story of the Imperial Stock Ranch is just wonderful, all the way from its beginning right up to the present day. If you fancy a read (which I highly recommend) head on over to their website. I'll limit myself from waxing on about Imperial for the time being to stop this post from becoming a novel and to save a story for another time.

The pattern is one I've been meaning to knit for ages. This was seriously the first pattern I ever considered making for Kevin, which was way back during our college days. If you consider that to be the start of this sweater then we just went from the quickest garment knit to the absolute longest. Ah well. Tis the nature of the craft I suppose.

So, the pattern is the Smokin' Jacket by Jared Flood from the Son of a Stitch 'n Bitch book. This is classic Flood folks. I ended up making a few modifications to suit Kevin's taste. Instead of standard stockinette I did a 1x1 knit purl rib allover. Because of this, I had to go down significantly in needle size. It ended up being size US 7's for the 2x2 ribbing at the hemline and sleeve cuffs and size US 8's for the body. I did the garter stitch collar in 7's as well. The other major modification was to do set-in pockets instead of attached pockets. I followed another Ravelers directions for this bit and am very pleased with how they came out.

All in all, this sweater takes the cake as my most successful garment knit of all time. He loves it. My goal for this year is to knit more sweaters so that I can finally get over my off-sizing problems and fear of long term projects. So, hopefully the blog will be full of many more successful garment FO posts this year.

Raveled here.