City Coat by Jennifer Stafford

City Coat

Knitting
November 2006
Bulky (7 wpi) ?
15 stitches and 33 rows = 4 inches
in Garter Stitch
US 8 - 5.0 mm
1808 - 2057 yards (1653 - 1881 m)
To fit sizes XS, S, M, L, XL. Coat is 40 inches long
English
Errata available: domiknitrix.com

From Domiknitrix



This fluffy and warm blend of merino wool and microfiber knits up quickly and has a lively spring to it.  I thought I’d emphasize the latter by knitting garter stitch sideways to the coat would bounce when I walked.  And boy, does it!  This coat demands to be worn with a high-heeled shoe, or better yet, a tall boot--and most importantly--a supermodel strut. 



Zips at both ends leave room for your stride.  The sleeve is flared and overly long.  A simple purled welt conceals a fabric pocket and maintain the clean line.



Note on gauge:  Gauge is intentionally tight, but NOT as tight as you might think based on the yarn info in the book. Allow me to explain



As you can see at the Ravelry yarn info page for Aspen, the ball band really does say 2.5 sts to the inch (my point being that technically, this is not an error, but I think it’s misleading, read on).



However, my experience with this yarn is that 2.5 sts/inch is a ridiculous loose gauge for it. It really knits up closer to 3.5 stitches to the inch if a size 10 needle is used and makes a nice normal fabric at that gauge. For example I’ve substituted Aspen in my Valentine heart pattern and it works perfectly at that gauge.



So it would be more helpful to choose a yarn that shows 3.5 stitches to the inch on the band, not 2.5. Still, buy one ball and make sure the gauge works before you go whole hog on your yarn buy.



To make this coat, you will knit it at 3.75 sts/inch which is tighter than 3.5, but I think it would be humanly impossible to knit most 2.5 sts/inch gauge yarns to make this coat if you plan to substitute yarn.