I will apologise now for the quality of the photos. It started to rain outside my normally bright window. It means all these photos have my skin looking very very white indeed. But, the Central Park Hoodie looks ok and that is the important thing here. I couldn't have both things looking good.
I have to say, I really enjoyed knitting this project. It was satisfyingly simple but with enough fun to keep it interesting. I really enjoyed the cables in particular. It felt very strange though to take a pattern and stick to it rigidly. As an exercise I think it has proved interesting.
I knit the size 44". As you can see from this photo, this leaves lots of bagginess at the back. This is because I am big busted. I have a narrower back, than the chest measurement would normally warrant. I would also prefer to have a longer jacket. This is a problem because I have a long torso (and short legs, but that is an issue for another crafting day). The ribbing at the bottom of the hoodie should be sitting on my hips, but they have ended up sitting on my waist, which I suppose does give the jacket some shaping! I think another problem is that the yarn I chose is quite dense and heavy. This means the hood, when it is not up, tugs at the back of the garment, which makes it bunch up a bit more at the back.
I am quite proud of my sleeves though. I haven't sewn in many set in sleeves. In fact, I think this is only the second time I have done so. I think I did quite a neat job. That finishing techniques course I did last year, is paying dividends!
See, that sleeve, and shoulder, seam is gorgeous! I really like the hood on this garment. It is quite sweet and pixie like. I also like how the cable along the two front edges are carried up the front of the hood to help frame the face. I did a three needle bind off at the top of the hood, but all other seams were either sewn or picked up and knit.
This really was a change from what I now prefer to knit in garments. I like to knit in the round, top down and I think I quite like raglans now too. I like knitting from the top down as it is so much easier to gauge fit, and adjust it as you go along. When a pattern is written in pieces and it is knit from the bottom up, it is hard to know where the bottom edge is supposed to fall, so adjusting becomes more difficult. This isn't a problem when knitting for other people, because they aren't always there to try things on, but for me there is little point in spending hours of time, and lots of money, making something, that doesn't fit like a custom made garment should.
I decided to knit the version without buttons. I decided that I liked the photographs of the versions knit without having button holes or crocheted loops. As I know I generally wear my cardigans and jackets open, I wanted to have an uncluttered, front edging. I did this before, when I added a zip to my cardigan instead of buttons. I'm still very happy with that decision from last year.
As we have had a few warmer days this week, I have been able to go out, wearing the CPH and a wrap. It was still a bit chilly for the CPH to hang open, so I used a shawl pin to keep it closed. This worked fairly well, but it did make it a bit lumpy under the wrap. I decided to use another method of closing the jacket. Today, I spent an hour sewing on hooks and eyes to the edges of the jacket. I think this solution works well. You can't really see the metal wear, but you can adjust how closed you want the jacket. In the above photo I have just used a couple, in the photo below, I used all of them.
I know myself well enough to know that I need an option of closing a cardigan, even when I wear it open most of the time. I know that when I want to fasten it up, and I can't, I'm going to be frustrated. The other thing hooks and eyes has over the shawl pin, is that I don't have to carry a pin around with me all the time. It also means that when the jacket is fastened you still have that nice double row of ribbing. With a shawl pin the double row is narrowed down to one row. I prefer the double row!
In summary I really enjoyed knitting this jacket, I really enjoy wearing this jacket. It is not greatly flattering, but it is warm and cozy. I kind of wish I could do it again, but top down and seamlessly. But then it wouldn't be a simple follow the pattern knit, would it?
As you may have noticed, it is a Friday, so I am hooking up my favorite linky parties; Tami's Amis for FO Friday, Fiber Arts Friday at Wisdom Begins in Wonder and Fibers on Friday at Visions of Sugar Plums. All three linky parties can be reached by clicking on the buttons below. There are always some cracking projects to ogle.
