Country Jacket for Kent's Mom

I've been wanting to make an outer garment of some kind for Blanche. I initially planned to make a poncho, but in the long time I put it off, I became a better knitter. I gathered up some patterns and took them to her. She picked this one, the Lion Brand Country Jacket.  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/country-jacket---sweater-jacket Then we went to JoAnn Fabric, and she picked out the yarn and buttons.

The pattern calls for size 13 needles. I needed 11s to get gauge.

And so it begins. I didn't realize until I had knitted halfway up the back that the yarn would stripe like this.

Once I got the back done, I knew I wouldn't be able to match up the stripes, because each of the two fronts is only half as wide as the back. I decided I should just start both fronts from separate balls of yarn and begin with the same color on the bottom both times. I laid out the two balls and piled up the colors where they changed.

They're not perfect, but also not shabby. Here is the finished back, and apparently, some toes. The two fronts are lying beside the back on the floor, to the left.

Here are the two fronts stuck together with the button holes marked. And the other set of toes.

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The pockets confused me terribly. In size large on the left front, I had 9 stitches held on the bottom and 11 stitches held on the top of the pocket slant shaping, which ended on the RS.

The pocket lining has 14 stitches and also ended on a RS.

JOIN THE POCKET LINER AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SLANT. Place the 14 pocket liner stitches on the left needle.
Break the working yarn and join it to the liner.

Purl across 12 stitches of the liner. Now you have two stitches remaining. Lay the liner to the right of the 9 lower body stitches, and return those stitches to your left needle. Place the last 2 liner stitches on a cable needle. Hold the cable needle in either the front or back of your working needles. Slip the first stitch from the left needle to the right, and then transfer the two liner stitches from the cable needle. Return the stitch you slipped back to the left needle. P2 tog 2 times. Now you are working 12 + 9 or 21 stitches. Finish the purl row and work 11 rows to get you to the top of the slant, because it took you 11 rows of decreases to create it. End on RS.

Now from the WS you have the 21 stitches you’ve been working on your left and the higher 11 held stitches on your right. (Size large). Your working yarn is at the right side of the liner. Break it again.

JOIN THE POCKET LINER TO THE TOP OF THE SLANT
Put the 11 held stitches against the other 21 already on your left needle. Attach the working yarn again.

Purl across 10 of the 11 stitches. Purl the 11th upper stitch together with liner stitch 1. Now you have the full 31 stitches you began with on your needles to continue working the rest of the left front. The square liner is attached to both ends of the pocket slant, leaving a slit for access.

Next came the two sleeves. Again, I knit them using two balls of yarn and starting at the same color on both. I decided to do them both at once, so here they are on a big circular needle. I pinned them together so I'd remember to do both right sides, both wrong sides, etc instead of just knitting away on one of them.

I didn't take any more intermediate photos, but I'll just explain here that the collar is created by picking up and knitting stitches along the neck edge. So I seamed the shoulders, added the collar, seamed the sides and underarms, and added the buttons.

Next came the two sleeves. Again, I knit them using two balls of yarn and starting at the same color on both. I decided to do them both at once, so here they are on a big circular needle. I pinned them together so I'd remember to do both right sides, both wrong sides, etc instead of just knitting away on one of them.

I didn't take any more intermediate photos, but I'll just explain here that the collar is created by picking up and knitting stitches along the neck edge. So I seamed the shoulders, added the collar, seamed the sides and underarms, and added the buttons.

I have about the equivalent of two balls of the yarn left, enough to make a scarf or hat to go with this. I bought way too much at the beginning, but it turned out to be a good thing, due to the color matching wasting plenty. I'm pretty happy with it, and so is Blanche.