FO - Sylvi

Back of my Sylvi

Pattern: This is Sylvi by Mari Muinonen

Yarn: Atlantic by Canadian Briggs & Little. The colour is called Sheeps Grey.

Needles: 6,5mm/US10.5

Project time: Last days of December, 2008 - October 18th, 2009

Pattern modifications: Well... I didn't change much. I added a flower design to the right front piece. I started out trying to make up my own pattern, but after a couple of attempts I decided to go for the hood chart.

The right front has a flower design on it and the sleeves have been changed as well

I also changed the sleeves. The original idea is to have sleeve cuffs knit as a rectangle that is sewn together. The sleeve is then knit after stitches has been picked up from the cuff's edge. I found these cuffs way too bulky for my liking and started my sleeves with a provisional cast on so that I could go back and finish the sleeves some other way. I ended up knitting a couple of rows of garter stitch before continuing in moss stitch again. The sleeves are bound off purlwise.

Thoughts: I loved the actual knitting of Sylvi. I seem to "get cables" quite easily and making the back and hood wasn't as hard as it might look. The back also starts out with only 90 stitches that are decreased throughout knitting. A row didn't take long to knit.

Heathered grey!!!

I fell in love with the yarn and I'm glad I decided to order it from Canada. (I ordered from The Woollen Earth and got excellent custom service!) The yarn is almost rope-like in it's rustic thickness. It smells of sheep. It has the oily feeling that true wool can have. And the colour! It's truly the most amazing heathered grey I've ever seen. (Unfortunately the pictures don't do it justice. The coat is darker than it looks in the pictures taken outside.)

So, the knitting was fun. But I had difficulties getting myself to sew down the petals. It truly took forever for me to get those flowers done. And the process drove me to tears more than once. Due to this, and some mishaps with parts being of different lengths when I attached the sleeves and sewed the raglan seams, the making of this coat took ages. All knitting and seaming was done by March but the finishing of attaching the last couple of flower petals and getting buttons took another 6 months.

Picture of the last flower I made

The buttons I ended up buying are wooden. They are all different and it took me a couple of weeks to get them sewn on after having bought them as I wasn't sure I really loved the look. I thought they were a bit too different from each other. But then my boyfriend and my mother talked me into at least attaching them before dismissing them. And I did. And I think they look good. They have the same kind of rustic and natural feel to them as the coat has.

The front with the four buttons I wasn't sure I loved

Sylvi doesn't have any pockets. I know some have added fabric pockets sewn into the side seam and some have added knitted squares on the fronts as pockets. I did neither, but I think I'll be okey with not having pockets. I normally don't use them much anyways.

Now, just because I can:

Playing on a bench

Checking out a mushroom I found in the grass

Don't ask me what I'm doing. I don't know...