Birthday Present Finished

I have finished my Sister in Law's birthday jacket in time for her birthday. I wish that I could say the same for my niece's jacket which has been put on hold. For this pictured jacket I used a pattern from Rowan called Buckland by Martin Storey. I followed the pattern for the 36" size but made the length as one of the larger sizes as my Sister in Law likes her jackets a little on the longer side. The Yarn is RYC Natural Silk Aran Shade 471 which I bought from Kemps for the bargain price of £1.79p a ball. The jacket has taken 15 x 50 gram balls.

It has a deep unusual rib with pockets. The ribbing is K1,sl1,K1, purl 3 on both wrong side and right side rows so it has a slipped stitch down the knit stitches on every row.

The colours are very subtle. There are slubs of a mink shade and even small flecks of blue. I think that I picked out most of the twigs and scratchy bits out of it as I went along. The yarn had long lengths of loose bits of yellow intertwined in it. I don't know if I was supposed to leave them in but I detached most of them as they too were a bit scratchy. The buttons aren't a very good match but I can't get to buy any different ones before her Birthday. They can always be changed at a later date.

The top buttonhole seems rather high but it was like this on the pattern so I left it in although I was in two minds. I don't think that my Sister in Law wears her jackets buttoned anyway. I do hope that it hasn't turned out too large for her as it is a heavy jacket. Luckily she won't mind hand washing it.

I was going to start some crochet flowers for the Islington Mill festival this afternoon but it took me longer than I thought to stitch the jacket up. I really have to continue my niece's chunky knitted jacket as she has waited patiently long after her Birthday for it. I will crochet her something else to make up for her long wait. When she calls for her Mum's cardigan I will let her browse in the stash room and pick some yarn and a pattern. The only stipulation is that it has to be crochet. I need a long break from knitting. Luckily my elder niece likes crochet for the summer.