Adult Surprise Jacket: Finished!

My Elizabeth Zimmermann "Adult Surprise Jacket" is now finished!  Considering the gigantic nature of this particular jacket, it is amazing that it is completed so soon.  The class which I took at Country Woolens in West Lebanon, NH began in November and ended early in December. I was NOT done at the end of the class, but finished up this morning.

The sweater was constructed of many different colors of Hilda Yates' farm Bartlettyarn worsted weight from her sheep fleeces which she gets spun and dyed in Harmony, Maine.  The colors all go together so well.

While making the sweater I made a few alterations in the pattern, and found that one of them was a real mistake.  (There is a spot where you are to take off 3 inches of stitches for what will be the neck drop.  I thought I needed more of a drop, and used 4 inches.  Turns out I was wrong, so I had to knit in some filler, which was not particularly lovely, but did do the fill in.)

Another alteration/change in order of knitting, was that after a while I began to tire of the never-ending knitting for the girth (having QUITE a bit of girth to cover) so I decided to stop that part and and finish the sleeves, knitting down to the correct length.  Another mistake!  Because the girth was not completed, when I folded up the sweater to gauge how much longer the sleeves needed to be, I overestimated how long they needed to be.  SO...now I have sleeves with a lovely thick inside cuff of about 3 1/2 inches.  If I had just continued on the girth until finished the sleeve length would have been correct.  Oh well.  Extra warm wrists  I do have in mind to pick up stitches along the inside of the wrist back up perhaps 5 inches, knit about two inches plain then knit about two inches of K2,P2 ribbing, which will close up the kimono-like sleeves around the wrists so snow and wind will have a harder time coming inside.  Since this is going to be my winter coat, this seems like a great idea!  We shall see.

Finished Adult Surprise Jacket--ready for snow, which is arriving as I write this caption!

The final thing I did differently was to make some after-thought pockets.  Being rather a short person, I wanted the pockets up high where I could insert my iPod when walking outside, so I needed to make after-thought vertical pockets.  I was concerned about the logistics and sent a note to Schoolhouse Press for suggestions.  Meg Swansen herself, wrote me back!  She (and they all) is such a lovely person.  Truly she and her whole family and family of helpers are so helpful to anyone with a knitting problem, especially with Elizabeth Zimmermann patterns.  Thank you, Meg, Cully, and All!

Outside pocket detail.  Just the thing. Thanks for your help and encouragement, Meg!