Glamour Jacket Knit-Along: Knitting the Upper Body

Editor’s note: There’s still time to get your Knit-Along Kit, get your kit here now – there are four to choose from! Also we have a hashtag for this KAL, use #LBspringKAL2015 when you share your progress on social media. Have fun!

Hello my fellow knitters! It’s Kristy Glass here and I’m hoping you’re still having fun!

Now that we have gotten comfortable with our materials … it’s time to REALLY dig in to this pattern!

This week I worked on the UPPER BODY section of the pattern.

Under Right Sleeve It says “with 1 strand of A only, cast on __” The sample garment that I have has a cast on edge with both strands held together. I like the look of that, so I am following suit by casting on with BOTH strands. I feel like I will like how this looks as my cuff. If you choose to do this, don’t forget to bind off the left sleeve with both strands held together!

The eyelet pattern does NOT specify what strand of yarn to hold when. The single strand is the darker color (Grey Stone, Lapis, Garnet, Jewel) and both strands is one of each yarn held together.

Remember the first yarn over (Row 2) is a yo knit wise, but you go right into a purl, so circle around ONE more time so that the yarn is around the needle and ALSO in front so that you are ready to p2tog. If you don’t make this extra loop around, you will miss the yo and just be ready to purl. It looks like this:

When I begin a project where RS and WS is important, I place a marker on the RS so that I always know where it is. If you would prefer to eyeball it, the RS is when the k,p rows look like stockinette (as opposed to a bumpy garter look). Or just remember, every even row is the WRONG side.

Whenever you have to knit with both strands held together, both strands will be on the correct side — if you find that it’s time to knit with 2 and there is a string on either end, you have made a mistake! You probably just skipped a row of instructions… On this project, I would suggest reverse knitting back to the spot where you messed up, instead of taking out the needle and ripping back — with the yarn overs, this gets tricky to save!

Don’t make the mistake I did one night when knitting in bed — I was knitting to the light of my computer monitor instead of full light, and when I looked at my work in the morning, I had gotten off by one row so the section I worked on in the dark looked like the WRONG SIDE!

Something to keep in mind if you are a meticulously even and balanced person:

See the k,p rows that are coming out of each side of the collar in this photo?

Having the same part of the pattern appear on each side of the collar makes for a beautifully symmetrical design. As I was knitting, and measuring according to the pattern, it turned out that my rows on the left side of the collar were also k,p rows, but my row on the right side of the collar was the eyelet row. I am totally ok with this! I thought I would point it out in the event you didn’t pay attention to what your rows were looking like at the cast off and cast on points of this pattern. If it matters to you, it may be worth it to take away or add in order to have the two sides be even—this may mean you need more or less length in your collar.

As you knit to make both sleeves even, I would recommend knitting the same amount of pattern repeats as the left sleeve, as you had for the right sleeve. I was folding my piece in half to see how far I had left to knit, but found that I would have been several pattern repeats short if I had eye-balled it, and I think in the end, after blocking, I would have had mismatched sleeves.

Don’t forget to LEAVE THE SLEEVE MARKERS in this finished piece. You need them there for reference when FINISHING the garment!

I love how this section of the glamour jacket turned out. I plan on using this Eyelet Pattern for future scarves!

Speaking of scarves, if you find that you lose steam on this project….this Upper body section makes a great one. My scarfie:

I want to hear from you! How is your UPPER BODY section going? Are you getting stuck anywhere? Don’t forget to check out our Ravelry group where we are chatting about our progress! Never Stop Knitting!

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I am Kristy Glass and I am so thrilled to be infiltrating the Lion Brand blog to lead you in the 2015 Spring Knit Along! Even though I learned to knit as a girl, my passion for fiber arts has escalated at a very steep rate these past several years. I returned to knitting and began crocheting about 8 years ago after I suffered an unexpected health setback leaving me feeling completely out of control. Hand work was a healing salve for my body and soul as I suffered through a long healing process. Thankfully I continue to use knitting to aid meditation, solace and a feeling of accomplishment. I knit year round, despite weather changes, and I am highly anticipating us all knitting together on this project. I have completed over 100 projects including scarves, cowls, hats, hand warmers, phone cozies, afghans, pillows, sweaters and yarn bombing. My most recent passion has been making sweaters and actually wearing what I make!