I’ve loved this coat ever since I first saw it in “Glorious Color.” I was able to purchase all the original Rowan yarns from a seller on e-Bay and started knitting on April 16, 2010. At the same time, my son’s mother-in-law, an even more adventuresome knitter than I, started knitting another Kaffe Fassett coat.

Follow our progress on our blog:
http://coatproject.blogspot.com

If you read my early posts (April 2010), you’ll see that the yarn called for in the pattern in Glorious Color is much more burgandy than the photo in the book suggests. But the yarns are beautiful and it’s an exciting project.
5-22-10: First two coat panels complete!
7-15-10: Finished bouffant leg-o-mutton sleeve #1 (made it smaller than pattern, only 120 rather than the pattern’s 180 stitches)
7-30-10: Starting back bodice.
8-16-10: Finished back bodice, started remaining two skirt panels
9-10-10: Finished remaining two skirt panels, started front bodices
9-23-10: Finished front bodices, started sleeve #2 (but this time 180 stitches around, following the pattern)
10-8-10: Assembling. Grafting (Kitchener) bodices to skirts, then side seams, then sleeves. Sleeves only tacked in since one will be voted down and removed and frogged.
10-9-10: KAFFE FASSETT DAY. Knitting workshop with Brandon Mabley, evening slide show by KF himself! See blog posts for descriptions of the big day. Surprise: Everyone, even Brandon and KF, voted for the smaller sleeve!!!
10-16-10: Garden photos to memorialize the BIG sleeve (on my left arm)
10-18-10: Frogged the big sleeve.
Tasks remaining: Re-knit sleeve; hem; pickup and knit facing around the entire front edge.
TAKING A BREAK FOR CHRISTMAS GIFTS
1-5-11: Back to work. Half way up the remaining sleeve, knitting in the round. Alternate stripes on the sleeves are stockinette and reverse stockinette. I hate purling, so I’m turning the work around at the underarm seam and going the other direction at the beginning of each stripe -- so I can ALWAYS knit! (…which creates odd holes at the underarm “seam” but I think they can be camoflaged when I weave in the yarn ends.)
1-22-11: Sleeves are done and blocked. Hem is turned up and sewn. Part-way through the facing called for in the pattern. ONLY FOUR DAYS TILL THE OPERA and the coat’s official “Coming Out” !!!

1-26-11: OPERA NIGHT: I was SO excited as I put on the coat. I knew I was wearing something unusual, maybe even outrageous. But I wouldn’t mind the stares. (I’m not shy, if you hadn’t noticed.) It would be fun explaining about the coat. If there were no one with an adventurous sense of design and style, surely there would be knitters among the 3,000 attending “The Barber of Seville” that night.

SURPRISE: Not a word. Not one comment except for one usher, who said, as I went by, “Your coat is fabulous!” I could have hugged her! (Even friends said nothing until I brought it up: “What do you think of my coat?” I asked.)

It was a bit of a let-down, to be honest. After 9 months of knitting, I’d clearly lost sight of how unusual the coat is. My opera-buddy says people were looking at it when my back was turned. But apparently it’s SO out-of-the-ordinary, people were a little embarrassed for me.

Think about it: you can’t get a much more staid set of people than those paying a lot to watch something composed in the 19th century! A little glamour might be appropriate for an attendee. but ususual costumes belong on the stage.

But not to worry, fellow-Ravelers, I loved wearing it. It’s been worth every stitch. I just need a more artsy venue. Thanks so much for all your encouragement -- what a wonderful community this is!