Update 10/4/09 - I wore Sylvi in my engagement photoshoot. Our theme was Little Red Riding Hood. You can see more photos of it here: Jerry Yoon Photography.

Sylvi is done. I ended up only using 14 hanks instead of the 15 I bought. This is a very, very dense and heavy coat, but it has undeniable wow factor. It has taken quite a bit of work and frustration, but in the end, I am very happy with the results. I bought leather buttons (5$ buttons?!) at Britex in San Francisco and sewed them on this morning. Josh took me into the Santa Cruz mountains to shoot some photos of the FO. It was a beautiful day out and we got some nice shots. Unfortunately, I lost one of the buttons on the trail. :( Good thing I bought an extra one, though. I need to reinforce the buttons!

Some thoughts in retrospect:

• I think I would have knit the back first as usual because my row gauge was different when knitting the sleeves in the round from knitting the other pieces flat. I had to frog half the back piece when I found this out.

• I used to hate seed stitch but I don’t mind it so much anymore after this project.

• Wool coats take daaaaaaaays to dry after wet blocking!

• I think I must like patterns with leaf motifs. sweatdrop

• I do believe this is my first FO of 2009.

1/17 - Almost done! Went to Britex today in SF and picked up some leather buttons that will go well with Sylvi. Just need to weave in ends at this point, sew on the buttons, and maybe block the sleeves just an inch longer. I might go out to Castle Rock tomorrow for the photoshoot. Very excited!

1/12 - I’m adding a slip stitch crochet chain along the edges to get the same knit slipped stitch edge appearance. KnitMoron had the good suggestion of dropping the edge stitch all the way down to chain back up so I might try that too. I am blocking the pieces before seaming and waiting for them to dry.

1/8 - I don’t think I did the edges right. I’ve been slipping the edge stitches as if they were seed stitch too so I don’t have a knit sts chain. Shit. Well I’ve gone too far to do anything about that. I’ll probably just mattress stitch normally and if I really want that structured edge maybe I’ll apply an icord.

1/6 - finished the left front and am about 90% done with the right front. I’m moving full-steam ahead on this; no other project distractions!

12/29 - the latest photos show my current progress. Wow, the photos are all different colors every shoot. I’ll try to get accurate photo colors for when I’m done.

12/26 - being below row gauge was not good. I frogged the entire back portion and am re-knitting with 7 mm needles. Much better! I’m finding I can actually knit faster as the cables are more opened up now and less tough on my fingers to work around.

12/21 - am working on the back and just finished the first chart. I know that I am below row gauge, but I’m crossing my fingers that this will still come out to a reasonable length on 5’4” me.

Started on the sleeve. I like the red I chose; it’s got a bit more black in it than the red in the original pattern.