Pattern: Flicca by Anna Bell, available here
Yarn: 15 skeins of Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Chunky in 'Stout'
Needles: US 9
Modifications: I made plenty though not because I didn't like the original pattern or found mistakes. First off, I decided to knit the back and fronts in one piece so I could avoid seaming. The sleeves were knit in the round as well, then attached to the body by knitting the front, sleeve, back, sleeve and front all in one piece (this was definitely not a portable project). I opted to knit a raglan yoke and because I was afraid that the weight of the jacket would have me constantly tugging at it, I attached two buttons to the front bands which were knit a bit wider than the pattern states. In the end, there were just a few ends to weave in (hooray). Oh, and I used size 9 needles by mistake! I had swatched with the suggested 10.5 but when I cast on I grabbed the wrong needles and didn't notice my mistake until I had finished the first tier. In the end it was a lucky mistake because I wouldn't have gotten such a nice fit with the bigger gauge. The pictures may not show it but instead of using regular knit stitches, I used ktbl on the right side and ptbl on the wrong side to get more defined stitches.
I really love it! It's a beautiful design and a very well written pattern. I can't wait for Anna's book to come out!
*mods in detail:
Flicca mods:
Here is a more detailed description of my Flicca mods. I took no notes during knitting, and I've forgotten a few things over the last few months, but it should give you a good enough idea how to adjust the pattern for yourself. I'm not giving any stitch counts as I don't want to interfere with Anna's pattern sales, you'll still have to buy the pattern for details.
A big help in grasping the idea of knitting three tubes onto one needle was the
Vogue Knitting book. Check out page 190, the chapter on 'Circular design with Yoke'. It shows three tubes (two sleeves and one body). You'll have two tubes (the sleeves) and the third tube is open (because it's a cardi, not a sweater).
How I started:
Instead of knitting two separate fronts and a back, I knit everything in one piece, from the bottom up. I made sure to place markers between right front and back and back and left front. Knit to the desired height to cast off for the armholes.
Now knit both sleeves in the round (I first used circs, then dpn's, or magic loop is another possibilty), until ready to cast off for the armholes.
Depending on how many stitches the pattern tells you to cast off for the first arm hole decreases, put the sts form the right front and back and from the left front and back on scrap yarn. Do the same with the sleeve sts.
Pin the sleeves to the body, the holding sts facing each other.
Now start knitting:
Knit right front until you get to the pinned sleeve, knit the sts of the right sleeve onto the same needle (you're omitting sts on holder), then knit back sts, knit sts of left sleeve onto same needle, then sts of left front. Knit one row (WS).
Now you'll have to do a little math. You need to figure out how many sts you have to decrease until the neckedge (use your washed and blocked gauge swatch). In my case I knit a few rounds back and forth, then started the raglan decreases on every RS row until the yoke reached the right height. The decreases on the front edges were started at the same time. I followed the pattern for the collar and frontbands, but I added a few shortrows for a wider collar, making sure to add the same number of extra rows for the frontbands.
Good luck :-)
