Sunday 31 March 2013

The Flowerpot coat

Winter is over, and finally the Flowerpot coat is done! But words can't describe how awesome it is - and this comes from a person that doesn't really like knitting the garter stitch.



From where should I begin? The yarn? The colors? Or the amazing pattern?

This is the first time that I make something while following a pattern to the end. Helene Magnusson is awesome, and her pattern is very clear and simple - exactly as it should be! 

The marrying of the traditional flowerpot design with the modern coat shaping, is brilliant! It works as a coat and a sweater too! And it's quite versatile, since even in the making the knitter has many choices regarding the length and size. And I love everything that can be easily adjusted.


But it's strange for me to make something entirely in garter stitch - you may not know it, but I avoid it: I find too chunky, uses too much yarn and not for such a beautiful result. But I trusted Helene, and I was justified in that choice, the coat looks brilliant!


I made a few modifications on the way - the first and most notable one is the colors, which are except from one totally different from the original pattern, and the second one, the sleeves: I knitted most part of them in stockinette and only a few rows of garter stitch in the beginning and in the end.


I knitted it in the Medium size and in combination of H1 and H2 heights, but I think it's a bit too wide - it may have been better in Small. Unfortunately I don't have any modeled pictures yet, since I didn't have time to get any, but hopefully I will have some taken this week!

of course, I was way too lazy to hide the ends, so for now I have left them like that..

The yarn, as I have mentioned before, is 100% Icelandic. It's the first time I work with it, and it's totally fascinating! I am declaring myself a new Lopi-fan! It's not very soft the first time you touch it, but it's very warm, and very durable - all these months that I have been knitting on and off the coat, the yarn has been in many places, but it survived, without getting dirty!

Also I got quite a few amount of leftovers from all the colors, which of course leads to this question: What to make next? :D


Now the buttons: the pattern calls for the kind of circle rings that one uses to make buttons out of yarn, but I couldn't find any, so I improvised: I went and bought metal rings (that one can find in any hardware store) at the appropriate size and used them as the starting point for the buttons. Quite cool, although I think I should have used more yarn for 'filling' them up. 

Generally I am very pleased with the result, and although here is mostly over, and such a coat is to warm to wear, I take it everywhere, and wear it whenever it's even only just a bit cold! ^^ 
But this week I will be spending time in a much colder country, so I guess that it will come in handy! :D

That's all for now, I hope all of you are also enjoying your knitting projects, even if they don't match the temperature outside!





1 comment:

  1. It looks absolutely amazing! I've never seen a pattern quite like this before, it is very bright and unique. You should definitely be happy with it, the amount of painful garter stitch definitely payed off. I look forward to seeing it modeled!

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