F.O.: Eagle Jacket

He's 6!! And I finally finished his birthday sweater! Last year after I finished knitting a shawl collar pullover sweater for my oldest son, he requested that I knit him a sweater that has a zipper on it. No problem! I have had my eye on this pattern for a long time and I was just waiting for him to be the right size to knit it.

Pattern: Eagle Jacket by Debbie Bliss in the book 9 to 5

Yarn: Patons Classic Wool in Charcoal, Black, and White

Needles: size US 7 & 8

I absolutely love this! It is one of the only Cowichan style sweaters that I have seen for kids. The pattern was easy - I was a little bit wary of doing stranded knitting on the purl side but it was easier than I thought it would be. The yarn is great also - a 100% wool in just the right colors.

I wasn't really sure how to go about installing the zipper. I found two methods - one was to use a hook to pull loops of yarn through the zipper tape so that you could knit the zipper onto the sweater and the other method was to just sew it on with a needle and thread. Neither method would work perfectly for this sweater so I used a hybrid of the two methods. I found a very large, very sharp needle in my sewing box (which I have no idea what I used it for previously?!?) with an eye large enough to pass yarn through and I chain stitched the zipper in place with the yarn. Really the only difficult thing I found with knitting this sweater was all of the ends that needed weaving in. I tried to do that as I went along so that I wouldn't be stuck with doing it all at the end but it was still tedious. A small price to pay for such a wonderful sweater!

Waxing and Waning

I am sure that in every knitter's production there are periods of waxing and waning. I hit my time of waning at the end of September. I just had way too much on my plate with four birthdays in a row here (all three of my boys' and my husband's) which included a few big parties, not to mention daily life of taking care of said boys and the amount of time and care that goes into that. Something had to take a back seat and it was my knitting. I was just too busy and, at the end of the day, too tired for it. Needless to say, none of my boys' sweaters were finished for their birthdays. In fact, they are still not finished.

There they sit on a chair awaiting their finishing touches. I am very close. I think now, after taking a much needed breather, I am ready to pick up the needles again and get these finished before my boys grow out of them and don't even get a chance to wear them. I might just be a waxing knitter now.