One day my five-year-old daughter, Anna, looked in my closet and saw a little green coat hanging. She asked me about it; I told her it was the coat that I had knit for her when she was about two years old. I told her that she had outgrown it. She wanted to try it on anyway, insisting that it would fit her. Well, it did fit around her chest but the sleeves only went to her elbows - not very useful for a coat. The yarn had been discounted and I'd long since ran out n my stash, and the coat was felted anyway. I couldn’t invasion a way to lengthen the sleeves that I would be satisfied with, so I had put it away for another child to enjoy someday.
Note: I like to let my kids have a voice in what special gifts they get for Christmas, and then include them in the process. That time together creating is part of the gift; creating special memories.
I went to the library and checked out Literary Knits, by Nicole Lohr, and found the pattern for the Phoebe Coat once again. The yardage I had would be really close. I wanted to lengthen the sleeves, and change the collar to a hood as she kept leaving hats behind. I decided to try to find another yarn to pair it with. I searched through my stash and hemmed and hawed. I finally decided upon three-stranding an off-white wool that I had plenty of. I had my daughter helping me through the process and she was happy with the color, too. I knitted up a swatch, and the gauges of the two yarns matched up perfectly. (Whew!)
Now that I knew that the yarns worked together, I had to figure out what parts did what. Anna told me we wanted uneven stripes. Then I decided to make the hood and the bottom part of the sleeves in the white, which wasn’t as scratchy against the skin as the red.
Now that I knew what I was knitting the progress went really quickly. I often sit and knit in the evenings while watching t.v or listening to an audio-book. I finished the body within the week, and started work on the sleeves. I made a mistake with the stripe pattern, but decided I liked the effect that I made, as did Anna, so I left it.
Next came the designing of the hood. I spent hours looking at other patterns to see how they connected their hoods, and how to shape them correctly. None of them were in bulky yarn and were felted, so in the ends I had to play it by ear. It turned out pretty well (though a bit shallow later after felting. Oh, well).
Anna eventually decided that she wanted a pointed hood and Hello Kitty ears. I added a bow, too, though I didn't sew it on until after the fulling (aka felting) process. I didn't want the red to bleed into the white hood.
For the fulling part I needed access to a washing machine that I could fully control. Unfortunately, I use a laundry mat for my regular laundry. After too many delays during a busy season I finally was able to borrow a friend's washing machine. The process went smoothly! The only problem was that it was now the day before Christmas Eve. lol
Anna and I went button shopping the next day. She changed her mind a lot! Well, I guess I can say that she consistently was attracted to buttons that wouldn't suit the coat. (No pun intended. lol) She wanted purple buttons, neon buttons, frog buttons, giant buttons. Eventually I caught on that she liked the sparkly buttons. Most were too small, too expensive, or out of stock, but then I realize I could do an accent button...
So in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve I was applying knots to make button loops. But it was all so worth it. The next morning I had a very happy five-year-old. :D
I realized later that I hadn't gotten a picture of her in her coat. So eventually I got her to do one of her favorite poses while we were at the library. lol. Perfect. The coat was originally designed after a book character after all!
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