Last week, I officially cast on the viral Project Hail Mary fox jacket knitting pattern. I was so excited to get started. I ordered my yarn directly from the Briggs & Little mill in New Brunswick (they were absolutely lovely to deal with BTW) rather than the kit from Mary Maxim. It felt like the beginning of a really fun challenge.
I’m totally missing the red for the tongue. 🤦🏻♀️
So off I went with swatching. Do you swatch? I always do for garments. Plus, the biggest size is slightly smaller than I would like so I thought I might have to play around with needle size anyway.
I swatched first with the pattern needles – 6mm/US 10. The recommended gauge is 14/4″.
There wasn’t that much difference between the pre-block and the post-block gauge.
Clearly, the winner is the 5.5mm/US 8. But rather than a 48″ chest circumference, I’m going for 50″. AND the 6mm is a lot more flow-y.
So off I went! Ribbing was a piece of cake. First few plain rounds, no problem. Then this…
That’s when it stopped being fun. This is when my knitting confidence took a big it.
But we got there in the end. Little paw prints done. They’re not great but not terrible either.
When I started the actual fox legs though, my intarsia was a MESS. I don’t understand how my stitches can be so uneven. Ugh!!!!
I’m very frustrated. I’m good at this knitting thing! Why am I so terrible at Intarsia? My friend Mary asked if I could duplicate stitch any of it. I initially said no because the B&L Atlantic is chunky and I don’t know that it’ll look right. But after my first attempt (which I didn’t photograph because it was too gross), I decided to try the “shadow” of the legs in black – it’s literally a line along the leg – using duplicate stitch.
Have you ever tried Intarsia? How did it go for you? I’ll take tips if you got ’em.
Stay tuned for progress…