Monica Knits

Jacket Design Features: This raglan sleeve jacket is knit from acrylic, fingering weight yarn in cream with blue trim, and accented with contrasting I-cord ties and baseball buttons. The design features 1x1 rib, baby cable, eyelet and garter stitches and garter stitch button and buttonhole plackets.

The entire layette: jacket, booties and hat were knitted for a good friend and colleague over a one week period. I wanted her to have a handknit garment for her first child. Since our team had been working long hours on a software launch, I wanted the gift to represent something precious--time.

The body of this two-color jacket was knit as one on 2.5 mm circular needles, starting with 2" of 1 x 1 ribbing in blue and followed by 6" of mock or baby cable pattern in cream. The original pattern called for 3 separate body pieces: right front, left front and back.

Then the jacket was divided for the armholes and the left front, then right front were knitted. The bodice is shaped with lace-edged decreases at the raglan sleeve border. When the neckline is reached, the remaining stitches are placed on a stitch holder.

The back is knitted in one piece, similarly to the front and the remaining stitches are placed on a stitch holder.

The button and buttonhole plackets are then knitted in garter stitch and attached to the right and left front edges. The sleeves are knitted from the cuffs up, starting with a 1" band of 1 x 1 ribbing, and the upper sleeves are shaped with the same lace decreases as the bodice. (The pattern was written for sleeves knitted flat, however I knitted the arms in the round.) The remaining sleeve stitches are placed on a stitch holder and the sleeves are sewn to the bodice.

Using the contrasting blue yarn, neckband stitches are picked up from the placket, then the stitch holders (right front, right sleeve, back, left sleeve, left front), and then the remaining placket. The neckband is worked in 1 x 1 ribbing for 1/2".

Finishing. I interfaced the plackets with robin's egg blue grossgrain ribbon and attached blue and white baseball buttons. The buttonholes were finished with embroidery yarn and a buttonhole stitch.

Tips:
Change yarn colors on the right side rows.
If I were to make this jacket again, rather than sewing on the button plackets, I would pickup stitches along the edge and knit directly to the jacket.
I would also knit from the top down to further minimize sewing and weaving ends. This would speed the process as well.

The pattern is found on pages 26-27 of the 1958 edition of: "The New Lux Knitting Book," from my mother-in-law's collection.