It took a while, but I haven't forgotten about the saga of the Sunrise Circle Jacket. In the first installment of this post I wrote about how short, heavy, round hipped women with busts larger than 37 inches finished stand a very good chance of creating a very unflattering jacket if they knit the pattern "as is". I described the various reasons that this is true and promised to tell you how I think you can modify the Sunrise Circle Jacket to flatter you.

This is my finished version of the sweater. You like? I do.

Vital FO Stats
Sunrise Circle Jacket by Kate Gilbert
Featured in the Fall 2006 issue of Interweave Knits, pattern available free on website
Pattern used - 45" finished Bust (largest size)

Yarn - Flax & Wool Yarn from Harrisville Designs
20% Flax, 80% Fine Wool
245 yards per skein ($8.80 per skein)
7 skeins used see below for more details

Finishing - Black Crochet Cotton
Buttons - vintage buttons ($15 for 5 buttons)

Total Cost of Materials - $76.60

Needles - US 7 (I used straights, in 10" and 14" length, no reason you can't use circs, I just prefer straight)

What I Did
Alright, because I know of no other logical way to do this, I'm going to walk you through my knitting of this project step by step.

Let me start by stating that I don't by any means think that my alterations will work for everyone. I made these changes to create the most flattering garmant for my body in particular. In case your wondering, here are my measurements:

- 42 inch bust
- 39 inch waist
- 16 inch long at back (from prominent bone at neck to waistline)
- 16 inch circumference of arm at thickest part
- 25.5 inch long arm (relaxed at sides and measured from neck to wrist)

(I think there are a couple general approaches you can take to altering the jacket if you aren't remotely shaped like me. I'll address that at the end of the post.)

To start off with, I took copious notes as I knit. This pattern is not terribley difficult, but there are a TON of line-by-line instructions. I write out almost all of my patterns in note form as I knit. That is, I write one line down in my own words in my notebook and then knit that set of instructions and then do it again, write, knit, write, knit. To many such a process may seem very tedious, however I have found that it elimates almost any mistakes that come from losing your place in the pattern, misunderstanding directions, and forgetting minor changes/choice you made that aren't indicated in the pattern (ie the kind of cast on or increase method you used). I have found that taking the time to write things out in a form and style that is easy for me to read actually takes a lot less time than trying to follow a pattern without any notes. Try it sometime, you'll probably find I'm right!

Before starting my knitting I knit my swatch and blocked it. Pattern Gauge was 4.625 sts/inch and 7 rows/inch. My gauge read 4.5 sts/inch and 7 rows/inch. That was as close a match as I could hope for and I took it. (Going to a smaller size needle would have put me at about 5 sts/inch, which is too many.)

I did, in fact, read through all of the finished measurements in the pattern before starting my knitting. I knew I was probably in for some trouble when the sleeve length totalled 33.25 inches and my arm only measured 25.5". But I really wanted this jacket so I made the decision to knit the whole thing up as written and than figure out how to alter it to make it fit me. Why didn't I just make the changes beforehand? The raglan sleeve and the front are knit as one piece. Because the I couldn't quite wrap my head around the unusual construction. I decided that it would be safer to just knit the pattern up as written and then decide how to make it fit the best for me. And I am very glad I did.

So I knit up the whole sweater as written, basted the seams and got exactly what I expected to get. The sleeves were excessively long, the darts in the back hit the widest part of my butt, the jacket fronts were no where near in proportion to my body, being too long and too wide. To leave the jacket in this condition would have been horrible. I would have never worn the thing!

The first thing I decided was that if the jacket was going to look fabulous on me (which is what I was determined to produce) I needed to do a lot more than just shorten the sleeves. I also would need to get those darts sitting at my natural waist, and shorten the fronts to match the new length of the back.

I started with the issue of the back darts. With the help of my mom I figured out where the darts should rest on my body. Then with little scraps of yarn threaded through the knitting, I marked where the pattern should end on the top and bottom to accomodate my petite frame. My rule of thumb is that my shirts and jackets should hang no lower than my hip-bones. And then I started ripping, keeping careful count of the number of rows I tore out. This frogged row count became very important later on. The back is knit from the bottom up. Now, that means that ripping out the rows from the neck was very easy, just regular un-knitting there. However, ripping from the cast-on edge at the bottom was a little more difficult. This is because the end stitches of every row are interlocked with the row above it, which means that at the end of every row you must un-interlock the rows by threading it through that end stitch. It slows you down, but saves a great deal of yarn.

I ended up ripping out a total of 44 rows from the bottom and 44 rows from the top. I put all of the stitches on a yarn holder. At this point I checked the back against my body again just to make sure it fit correctly and it did. On to the sleeves/jacket fronts!

This is the yarn that was left over from frogging.

I thought that the jacket fronts would pose an even bigger challenge than the back, but it turned out to be fairly easy. Since the jacket fronts were knit to match the back I was pretty sure if I ripped out the same number of rows I would end up with the same length as the back. Now, here's where it gets a little confusing: remember that the right jacket front is knit simultaneously with the right sleeve. You knit the cuff and forearm of the sleeve and then at the armpit you start increasing rapidly on one side to create the semi-circular front. Very cool design, but it also means that it is a very non-traditional construction. Unlike in "normal" sweater knitting, each row added two rows of length. Why? These rows with their increases create the sweeping semi-circular arc that made the rows almost entirely vertcal. The beginning of the row would start at the bottom of the jacket front and the end of the same row would be at the very top of the front. What the meant for my alterations was that for the 88 total rows of ripping out I did in the back, I would only need to rip out 44 rows from the front and only from one direction instead of two. So ripped back 44 rows total from starting at the bound off edge of the front on both sides. I checked to make sure the fronts matched in length with the back and it did, perfectly. Again I stuck my stitches on stitch holders.

It was at this point that I decided not to alter the bottom portion of the sleeves. I could see that they were clearly still too long. However, I could also tell that in the process of altering the fronts I had also modified the neckline. Because sleeve and front were attached, every row I frogged also ripped back a row of the raglan sleeve at the neckline. I knew that the final product was going to look just fine even with the widened neckline, but I wasn't sure exactly how the end result would sit on my shoulders. So I thought it would be best to hold off on "hemming" the sleeves until everything else was more finalized and I could put the sweater on and measure.

Next step was to re-install the 10 rows of self-facing on all of the frogged pieces. I wasn't looking forward to doing this part and actually set down this project for several months because of my concern that it would take significant mental power. It turned out to not be that difficult at all because of my careful counting as I unknit.

Recreating the Facings
Beginning with the bottom edge of the back, I put the live stitches back on my needle and knit a purl row onto the Right Side of the fabric. I then, using my notes, figured out what line of the pattern I was on and knit the previous 10 rows backwards (for example, if I was on row eight, I knit another row 8, then row 7, 6, and so on). I knit these instructions exactly as written, the only difference was order.

Next I went to the top of the back and put those stiches on my needle, purled another row onto the Right Side of the fabric, and determined where in the pattern my live stitches were located. The difference this time was that I knit the previous 10 rows backwards again but reversed the shaping. That is, when it said K2tog, I increased and so on. Reversing the shaping created the mirror image of the existing knitting. When the facing was turned downwards to the inside it matched perfectly. I followed this second procedure again for the front/sleeves as well.

Finishing Up

Now it was time to tackle the sleeve length. I did a quick baste of the sweater and then tried the whole thing on. I marked the sleeves just a little above my wrist with scrap yarn. I actually ended ripping out 40 rows from the bottom of each sleeve. Because I was knitting from the bottom downward, I followed the first proceedure above for recreating the facings (that is, knitting the previous 10 rows backwards but maintaining identical shaping)..

And that's it! Knitting was done. All that remained was sewing the whole thing up. I used a black crochet cotton to do so because the yarn I knit with was unsuitable for finishing. It was a single ply yarn that easily became unspun and broke as I tried to pull it through the seams. I instead opted for the cotton crochet thread for it's smaller gauge, lack of grabbyness as I pulled it through my knitting, and it gave the facing a very nice tailored look on the Wrong Side of the Jacket.

Now, I know that this is probably the longest post in the history of blogging, but I'm going to make it longer because I have two more things to do:

To make exactly what I made
BethC from the Sweet Life Knitter's has requested that I give instructions on how to knit my exact Sunrise Circle Jacket without doing all that ripping out. This is because she tried on said sweater at our last meeting at It's a Sweet Life Cafe in Fairfax and it fit her quite nicely. I don't blame her in the least for not wanting to frog if she doesn't have to, so here it is:

For right and left front/sleeves:
- knit in the largest size as written until Row 71 is completed.
- Use the instructions for above for Recreating the Facings.

For the back
- cast on 104 sts
- Beginning with a purl row, K in stockinette stitch for 9 rows
- (RS) P row
- Beginning with purl row, K in stockinette stitch for 12 rows
- follow the instructions as written for Back starting with Darts: On the next..."
- Disregard all instructions after " ... curved contours of the darts Shape Raglan:

- *Dec Row: K1, K2tog tbl, K to last 3 sts, K2tog, K1
- P row
- Repeat Dec Row
- K in stockinette stitch for 3 rows*
- Repeat * 10 times more
- Repeat Dec Row
- P row
- Repeat Dec Row
- P 2 rows

- Inc Row (RS):K1, M1, K to last 2 sts, M1, K1
- P row
- Repeat Inc Row
- K in stockinette stitch for 3 rows
- Repeat Inc Row
- P row
- Repeat Inc Row
- bind off all sts

My Alteration Suggestions
One more thing before I close the neverending post of doom. I promised my thoughts on general alterations to fit any person. So here they are:

Start by fitting the back. In order to get a matching fit with the front pieces you MUST make sure that you take the same number of rows out from the top and the bottom. Start by altering the bottom. Get those darts to sit at your natural waist and find a length that is flattering to your body shape. Take out the same amount on the top. Now, like my jacket you may end up with a much wider neckline than the original design, but it is a very pretty neckline, nonetheless (you've got to give something up to get something and I think a good fitting garmant is worth a different albeit similar neckline). Consult "Recreating the Facings" above for how to properly construct the self-facings. You can alter the back piece before or after knitting. Pre-knitting alterations take careful time and math with the pattern. Post-knitting, requires probably the same amount of time and frogging. If I were to do this again for someone else, I would probably choose the latter method.

After you know how many rows are omitted on the back top and bottom you are ready to start knitting your front/sleeve pieces. If you ripped 12 rows from the bottom and 12 from the top of the back, then omit the final 12 rows of the sleeve/front pattern. Remember every row taken out of the front equals two rows (a top and bottom) in the back. Again consult "Recreating the Facings" to finish these pieces.

I suggest that you leave the sleeve cuff length to the very end and just rip out the excess and recreate the facings using the first method in that section. I think it's the safer way to go because it will be tricky to estimate where the collar will sit on your shoulders until you actually can try it on.

That's it! Whew! My appologies to anyone who read this entire post and did not find it helpful at all. If you did read and have a comment or question please post in the comments. I'd love to hear about any experiences with Sunrise Circle Jacket, especially with alterations. And this post is so long that I'm sure somewhere I have been confusing or made an error. I'll be happy to correct and clarify.

The Truth
The truth about the Sunrise Circle Jacket is that it was a great idea. It took a lot of work to get to it work with my heavy, short and round body, but I am extremely pleased with the end results!