Bear Jacket

 It's done! Hurray! I am so pleased with it. Not perfect, but I am not pointing out the mistakes, so no one who hasn't knit this pattern will ever know. Ladies and gentlemen -- Bear.

Pattern: Bear Jacket by Mary Maxim

Size: Ladies Large

Yarn: Heartland by Lion Brand
Content: 100% Acrylic, Worsted Weight
Colors: 98 Acadia, 153 Black Canyon, and 135 Yellowstone

Needles: Circular size 8 and 10

Started: August 22, 2022
Finished: November 15, 2022

Comments: I knit this using 2 strands of yarn held together because the pattern needs bulky weight yarn. I couldn't find one I liked, but I fell in love with Heartland, which is a worsted weight yarn. If I wanted to use it, double stranding is required. Surprisingly, I got perfect gauge, which never happens! It's wonderful to work with.

This is the front. I picked a rust brown instead of the red the pattern calls for because I know the receiver of this gift likes rust brown. It goes well with her red hair.

This sweater is knit in pieces and sewn together. I don't mind the sewing. If I were to do it over again, though, I might put all three body pieces together and knit as one piece. I'd need to sew in the sleeves, and the collar.

Here's a close up of a bear and a little bit of the zipper. I hand sewed that zipper in. It was a big challenge for me because it's been a looooooooong time since I've had to do that. It came out okay. Better than expected.

I also made a change in the sleeves. In the pattern the bears are facing the same direction- to the right, which looks a little weird, so I changed the direction on one sleeve so they're both facing forward.

Here is the back. 

It's a raglan sweater, so a person could knit it from the top down and have no sewing, except the collar. 

One would have to change the collar completely to do it seamless because it's knit side to side.

I've never seen a collar like this one. It was a challenge to sew on because most collars are done by picking up stitches around the neck edge. After much research looking for the best way to sew it on, I ended up whip stitching it, which actually made it look seamless on the inside (No pic cuz I suck as a photographer.). I'm very happy with the result. I lightened up this picture quite a bit so you could see how the seam looks from the outside. (click on the photo to embiggen.)

There is no way I would do it in the round and cut steeks. The bears are knit in Intarsia, which requires back and forth knitting. I know someone came up with a way to do Intarsia in the round, but it is extremely complicated and fiddly. It's easier to just knit the thing flat.

This is a close up of the bears on the back. I actually knit the tree in fairisle, but the bears are intarsia.

I had to learn how to do fairisle with 3 colors in a row. I frogged 3 times before I got it right. This is the stitch pattern that needs it.

I love the spiral pattern below. It was super easy to knit. 

This is not a pattern for a new knitter. You need to get a few years of experience before tackling this one.

It has been so cold here. I've put sweaters on Zoey every day for over a week. She loves her sweaters.

Live long and prosper. \\//