I named this jacket Cliffs of Caithness, because the stripes of the Mushishi yarn remind me of the rocky shores of northern Scotland.

I’ve had Mushishi yarn for some time in my stash and couldn’t decide on the right pattern to do justice to this beautiful self-striping yarn. Finally, I decided to knit a jacket sideways, so that the direction of the stripes would be vertical. I combined it with some solid color yarn for contrast.

This jacket is worked sideways, starting from the left front opening, to the left sleeve, the back, the right sleeve and the right front. To finish the jacket and get the sleeves to the right width, I added wide black stripes to the side of the jacket and the underside of the sleeve. To balance these stripes out, I made the button bands also black and of the same width and added a black stripe to the center of the back. The hem of the jacket and the cuffs of the sleeves are finished with wide black garter stitch bands. Since the sides of the jacket are joined with the 3-needle bind off, the pattern is practically seamless.

The jacket features an elegant, A-line shape that is achieved using short rows.