1/16/13: Knitting the Sweet Pea Coat

I'm back this week with my promised post on the jacket I'm knitting: The Sweet Pea Coat. My Ravelry project is here.

The Sweet Pea Coat was designed by Kate Gilbert for the Winter 2008 issue of Twist Collective magazine. The jacket is knitted using bulky weight yarn and it is done in pieces. The highlights to the design must be the wide, overlapping front that is closed with four buttons, (the hallmark of every sweet pea coat) the moss stitch hems and collar, and the very cute and useful pockets. 

The yarn I chose is the Knit Picks Full Circle Bulky in Fresh, which is a sage-y green color that has more green mixed in than gray. When I first pulled it out of the box I was a bit disappointed because I thought the yarn was going to be grayer than it turned out to be. It is, however, growing on me and I'm very happy with my color choice. It is also a single ply yarn and 100% wool.


I've always loved pockets so I was very much intrigued about knitting one. Once I got to the pocket instructions I soon found myself scratching my head and not understanding it one bit. Total knitting block. I went onto Ravelry to see if anyone else ran into the same pocket conundrum. According to members' projects, the pocket did cause them a knitting "hiccup" but all of them managed to make it through. Too bad they didn't leave any notes on how they got there! :(

I then scoured the Ravelry forums but came up with nothing. After all of this searching I did gather one bit of good information: other knitters had trouble and most of them left a note saying, "The pattern didn't make any sense to me, but I followed it anyway and I came out alright in the end." So I spent a good part of a Sunday afternoon with the pocket and after all was said and knitted, I had a finished pocket.

As soon as the pocket was finished I vowed to share what I learned in a blog post. This blog post idea soon turned into a video tutorial idea so I filmed the second pocket making and uploaded it to my channel.

See how I knitted the Sweet Pea Coat Pocket by clicking here.

Sweet Pea knitting has been coming along steadily. I have the BACK, RIGHT FRONT, 1 SLEEVE, and part of the LEFT FRONT knitted, blocked, and partially sewn. Just 1/2 of the LEFT FRONT and a SLEEVE to go. I've been having a little Sweet Pea vacation as of January so most of the jacket was knitted during my December "sprint." Not bad when knowing I started this project on 12/21!

[ the current status of my Sweet Pea Coat ]

I don't know if I'll go through with it, but I've been debating on lining this jacket. My reasons: it will make it easier to slip on and off, it will last longer, and, perhaps most important, it will give me the feeling of wearing a jacket instead of just a bulky sweater. What do you think? Lining yes or lining no?