* * PATTERN REMIX: The Nantucket Jacket * *

Ta daaa! Here it is!

Finally! ; ) Thanks for being so patient in waiting for this one, dear reader.

So, like probably half-a-million other ladies around the country, I immediately fell in love with the Nantucket Jacket pattern, featured on the cover of the Winter 2006 issue of Interweave Knits . Slouchy yet tailored, with a "horse-barn-y" appeal to it (term officially coined by Elaine Kim, of Kim Chi Crafts), it looked like just the kind of thing I'd like to live in on a day-to-day basis.

A small aside here: when Elaine made her "horse-barn-y" comment, Síle Convery (who happened to be in the room at the same time) made a joke about not really being able to picture me with a riding crop and those funny little jodhpur pants.

See it's funny now, because I'm a pretty urban creature these days, tickety-ticking away on my computer all day, every day. As a graphic designer, I have to present myself with enough style to convince people that they trust me to design for them. ; )

BUT, there was a time (in the not that distant past) when I was much more of an outdoors-woman. I actually spent about a year volunteering at an Oakland stables on Skyline Drive. So I rather like the horse-barn-y look. Maybe this sweater brings back the memories of a wilder time…

Just for the record though, I never wore jodhpurs. I rode Western, after all! Cowboy boots, no jodhpurs.

Anyway Síle muttered something about being awfully young to have had so many previous lives, but I guess I've always been a bit, well, restless. ; ) Which is why it's on to the next sweater already…

SO ANYWAY back to the NANTUCKET!

I'm not going to reproduce the entire pattern here, but those of you with your copy of the Winter 06 Interweave should not have much problem plugging my changes into the original pattern, should you wish to!

Those who don't will be able to order back copies of the magazine in question here.

I do suggest having the pattern in front of you when reading the following, as I don't think my notes will make much sense otherwise.

* * THE NANTUCKET JACKET * *
by Norah Gaughan
Interweave Knits, Winter '06, begins page 62.

FINISHED SIZE (referred to in my notes): XS, 34" bust. (its actually a bit bigger than this.)

YARN: I used the Karabella Aurora 8 in colour No. 16, a pretty rust red. The pattern calls for 12 balls, but I used 11 on the dot, including edging and sleeve and body lengthening alterations. Hey, you can save yourself $9.

A last-minute word about the YARN: I received a kind note on my last Nantucket post from Frecklegirl Jess to alert me to the fact that the Karabella Aurora has a tendency to STRETCH when WET – I have not tested this out for myself, but just be warned! Dry clean!

NEEDLES: I used #9 circulars for the entire sweater, and a #7 crochet hook for the edging.

NOTIONS: I picked up some pretty polished wooden buttons ( you need 5 of 'em) at Lacis, but any 3/4" buttons will do.

GAUGE: Pattern calls for 18 sts / 24 rows = 4 in, using Stockinette Stitch. I think the Karabella Aurora 8 was something like that. Hey, this is a really stretchy sweater 'cause of all the cables.


PATTERN ALTERATIONS:

BACK: The only alteration I made to the body of the sweater was to lengthen it (both front and back, of course) by about 1-2" through the waist area, i.e. after the "shape waist" section but before the "shape bust" section. For the XS sweater, the easiest way to think about it is to count by cables, since the sweater is very boingy and getting an accurate length measurement is hard. So:

Shape bust: Begin with the first RS row AFTER the 9th cable row.
Shape armholes: Begin with the first RS row AFTER the 13th cable row.
Shape shoulders: Begin WITH the 19th cable row.


When you get to the final BO row, DON'T BIND OFF. Transfer your remaining stitches to a holder, so you can graft the shoulder seams in Kitchener stitch.

A note on LENGTH:
After getting the entire sweater together now, I realize I could potentially have lengthened the body even a little bit more, say by one more cable row, as the original pattern really called for a very short torso length. (Thank you to eagle-eyes Carrie for pointing this out to me at a knit-along in February! It was a very helpful insight).

I'm not that long-waisted, but even with the additional length above, the top of the seed wedges which allow for the flattering flare of the sweater rides slightly higher than my belt line. I think this sweater probably looks nicest if that line, i.e. where the sweater is at its thinnest, corresponds to your thinnest bits.


LEFT FRONT/ RIGHT FRONT:
Just use the same cable row numbers above (or whichever ones you use) to match your increasing/decreasing to the back of the sweater. That being said, you should know that even if you follow the pattern to a tee, the shoulder seam winds up sitting somewhat back from center (i.e the distance between the start of the shape armholes section and the shape shoulders section is greater on the front panels than on the back, due to how many rows it takes to "move" the seed stitch all the way over for the collar shaping.)

This actually works out fine, and simply must be taken into account when you attach the sleeves (see below), but it's good to know ahead of time, just so you don't pull your hair out over it like I did for a night. Live and learn.

When you get to the final BO row, DON'T BIND OFF. Transfer your remaining stitches to a holder, so you can graft the shoulder seams in Kitchener stitch.

SLEEVES:
Here's where I really messed this pattern around. You can see how it knits up according to the original here, at my previous entry specifically about Nantucket sleeve woes, and you can see more pictures of the alteration I eventually made here. To the right is a detail shot of the new sleeve pattern laid flat.

The problem was that the original sleeve knits up too short and too bulky for my taste, and the seed stitch underarm generated a peculiarly reptilian feel. See, while we're on the subject of previous lives, I used to be a rock climber, so definitely don't have waify little twig arms. Perhaps you can get away with knitting this the original way if you have skinny little twig arms, but for the rest of you, who don't, here's my alteration:

CO 51 (remember, this is for the XS, but for a larger size, simply CO the number required by the pattern, minus 3 sts.).
Purl 1 WS row.
Set up row: k1, knit Chart A over 21 sts, k 3, p1, k3, knit Chart C over 21 sts, k1. (total 51 sts.) If you are knitting a larger size than the XS, factor in the extra sts at both ends of the row, and do them in reverse stockinette.
Row 2 (WS): p1, Chart C, p2, k1, p1, k1, p2, Chart A, p1. (The central 3 sts become seed st.)
Row 3-6: Continue as established, with the central 3 sts in seed st. This forms a slighly more solid cuff than doing the entire sleeve in Chart B.

Row 7: inc 1 st each end of the needle, in rev. stockinette, so that the row would read like this:
p1, k1, Chart A, k1, Chart B, k1, Chart C, k1, p1 (total 53 sts)
Row 8 and on: Now continue for another 7 cable rounds in this established pattern, as you have been for the rest of the sweater. C'mon i know you're REALLY GOOD at it by now, having finished miles of it on the body of the sweater!

**NOTE: I drastically lengthened the sleeve, because I don't really have any use for a short-sleeved sweater, but if you want to keep the original half-lenth sleeves, simply don't go as many cable rounds before you start increasing towards the armhole as I did here.

Continue even (with your 53 sts, right?) until you have finished your 8th cable row. On the first RS row after the 8th cable row, begin increasing as such:

Increase 1 purl sts at the end of every other RS row, 6 times. (total 65 sts)

Shape cap: On your first RS row AFTER the 12th cable row, resume the pattern at the "shape cap" section:

BO 3 sts at beg of next 2 rows, then BO 2 sts at beg of foll 2 rows – 55 sts rem.
Dec 1 st each end of needle every RS row 6 (for XS!) times, then every 4th row once, then every RS row 5 times – 31 sts remain.
BO (beginning on WS) 2 sts at beg of next 2 rows, then BO 3 sts at beg of foll 2 rows – 21 sts rem.
BO all sts.

You'll notice that all the increasing and decreasing now happens in the reverse stockinette sections at the end of each needle, which makes a clean and unobtrusive gusset under each armpit. Yay!

FINISHING:
It may be helpful to note at this point that when you go to stitch your sleeves onto the body, you will need to set them slightly towards the front, if you want that pretty eyelet stripe to run down the crest of your arm (and you did all that work to put it there, so why wouldn't you want to show it off?) So what that means is you need to line up the shoulder seam with the back-most EDGE of the eyelet pattern, NOT with the CENTER, as you'd think. An easy way to check this, and find the exact spot on the sleeve that the shoulder seam will hit, is to make sure your seams line up at the armpit at well. Don't forget to check that both sleeves are even with each other too!

Once you have your sweater all stitched up, you can begin the crochet edging. I used for a slightly simpler design on the edging than called for in the pattern, by using the scalloping only around the collar. So here are my changes:

Crochet edging:
Row 1: With WS of work facing, work 1 row of single crochet (sc) from the bottom corner of the left front, up front edge, around collar, and stop at the base of the collar on the right front. Then *ch 2, skip down one st to make a 1/2" buttonhole, work in sc for 2" (or 7 sts in sc), and repeat from * 4 more times to create 5 buttonholes. (You probably won't have a full 2" left after the last buttonhole, so just go until the bottom of the right front.)

Row 2: Turn work and work sc back up the right front, until you get just past the top buttonhole, and then begin the scalloped pattern: * skip 2 sts while chaining 1, ([double chain, ch 1] 3 times, double chain again ALL in the next st, skip 2 sts, sc in next st, rep from * to bottom of collar on left side (make sure it's close to even with the right side!), and continue in sc down the left front, and weave in your loose ends.

I opted not to do the edging on the sleeves, but if you want to, just follow the original pattern.

Sew your buttons on the left side, centered on the band formed by the seed stitch/edging.

Voila! The Nantucket Jacket is finally finished!