Skip to main content

Jaeger Jenny Cardigan & Beret


Pattern: Jenny
Book: Jaeger JB29
Materials: Knit Picks Merino Style
Amount: Cardigan - 4 balls 'Storm', 1 'Frost', 1 'Harvest', 1 'Vanilla'
Needles: US3 and US6 bamboo, US7 plastic for fair isle pattern
Cost: Cardigan - at $2.49/ball approx. $17.50
Start Date: I can't remember. I think I started this last December and stopped sometime in January because I kept making too many mistakes. I restarted it again a couple of weeks ago.
Finish Date: Aug. 9, 2007 (still needs buttons though)

I wanted to make this cardigan with the same yarn the book calls for, Jaeger Baby Matchmaker DK, but found it impossible to find the yarn in the colors the pattern calls for. The colors are either wrong or they were discontinued. I also tried finding errata for Jaeger pattern books to no avail. Really frustrating.

I finally gave up and decided to substitute with cheaper KnitPicks merino wool. I picked the colors from their website. When I got the yarn, the colors were so hideous! They are super bright and saturated, nothing like what they show online. Yes, I know they might look different on my monitor but I looked at them on at least 4 different monitors and no, they are just way off. I recently got one their catalogs in the mail and the colors are much better represented there. Needless to say, I was really disappointed with the colors but decided it would be a learning project anyway, since I've never knit anything with more than one color.

I did the beret first to see if I could get the hang of it. I thought it went well but then noticed that the contrast colors were a bit too tight on the back and my seeming wasn't very smooth. The fair isle went much better on the cardigan and when pressed, it was much smoother. I finally figured out how to do the mattress stitch seeming on the cardigan but not until I got to the second side. So one side looks much better then the other.

The pattern was pretty easy to follow or I'm finally learning a few things so I'm not getting stuck like I did when I first started. One other thing I didn't like about the KnitPicks Merino Style wool was that the dark blue color stained my bamboo needles. And to irke me even more, I just found out that Jaeger is being discontinue and Matchmaker DK is on clearance everywhere. I actually thought about buying it and making the cardigan all over again but I still can't figure out the right colors to get to match the one in the book.

Overall, I'm fairly happy with the cardigan as far as accomplishing it with the skills needed. (The white balance is kind of off on the pictures which actuallly makes the yarn colors look much better than real life).

Labels:

Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 28, 2007 at 9:28 PM

    I think it looks wonderful. When I first saw the top picture, I thought it was a magazine picture and immediately wanted to know which magazine it was so I could buy it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anne MarieJanuary 12, 2009 at 5:03 AM

    Ohhh. I love this book. I had one but lost it (left it) on my flight to the USA this last summer. I was so sad. And now it is impossible to find it since it is out of print... Lucky you! :-)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Tinkerbell Cake

I made something! A friend of a friend ..... needed a cake made for her daughter's fourth birthday. I came up with a few ideas, trying to keep them uncomplicated. She opted for the more traditional nine inch round cake with decorations. I thought it would be simple enough, but it always ends up taking me way longer than I anticipate. I wish I could go to a professional cake decorating class by Debbie Brown or Rebecca Sutterby so I could learn some techniques like how to get things to stay glued on. I could never be a cake decorator -my time to money ratio is kind of ridiculous. But here it is. Monkey Pants now wants a Tinkerbell cake for her next birthday too, of course. I need to wake up early tomorrow to make sure she's not eating the mushrooms off of it. (It's happened before).
18 comments
Read more

Emmeline Apron 2

Just got done with this one. Another Emmeline Apron for a Christmas gift. I wanted to try something different with my choice of fabrics this time, although not too different since they are still Amy Butler prints. I chose some darker blue fabrics from the Daisy Chain (Aquatic) line that I wouldn't normally be drawn too. But I'm glad I did. I really like the result. This time, I did a few things a bit differently. One thing about the pattern I'm not fond of is the wordy, yet poor instructions on how to place the waist straps onto the sides of the apron at the right angle. I really don't know why the correct angle isn't just printed on the pattern. So to minimize the trial and error approach encouraged in the pattern instructions, [TIP:] I laid out the fabric and the strap as it would appear once constructed and simply marked a line on the strap corresponding to the angle of the apron. Then, I flipped both apron and strap layers over together; lined up the strap wit...
21 comments
Read more

Face painting

For my daughter's upcoming birthday party, I decided I might try my hand at face painting. I collected some photos from the internet I liked, check out a book at the library, and bought some face paints at the party store. The face paints are not very cheap but cheaper than hiring a face painter, right. Here's a couple of the faces I've tried so far. Now if I can only get my face painting time down to ten minutes from twenty minutes a face for the party. I think I may have to enlist a volunteer to help out too. The painting part is actually much easier than it would seem. The only thing that makes it challenging is that the canvas is constantly moving around (at least my canvas). It's not too hard to wash off, but the black takes a bit more scrubbing as the paint is grease or oil based. It makes for a fun activity especially as it gets too cold to go outside. My 3-year old thought it was "amazing" when she looked in the mirror. I even talked my husband i...
4 comments
Read more