I really don’t know why the designer called it Manchester. I just can’t make any link between a double breast jacket to a city in England.

However I fell in love with this pattern when I saw it the first time, and I knew some wool in my stash would perfectly suit this pattern, and that’s mom’s gift from China.

I did it, regardless almost 3 months time that it took me (as I did it on and off and did some other projects in between). It’s a great and interesting journey of learning new stitches, re-polishing my skills on shaping and final blocking, making button holes and trying i-cord and i-mock techniques. I just enjoyed it tremendously.

Yesterday I went to Spotlight to buy buttons, but couldn’t find anything I like. After I came back home, I started to dig in my drawers of bedside table. I finally found 6 buttons, which were removed from some old clothes that I already trashed many years ago. They are so simple that almost take you no fantasy at all, but I decided to go for it as I would rather keep it low-key for this jacket than using some expensive eye-catching design for buttons.

It worked. And when I tried it on after blocking (a bit of ironing and pressing under a wet towel), I couldn’t believe this is the jacket that I knitted myself. Now I couldn’t wait to wear it, though the weather is still quite warm.

The more interesting thing that I found from this jacket is, when I undo the top and second row’s buttons, the jacket turned to a wide open V collar jacket, and looks equally nice as the double breast design. I actually knew that normally the double breast jacket would make me look a bit chubbier than my actual figure, but with additional option, it just makes me feel even better.

See, I told you I can knit

To see more photos and my progressing journal of this project, please check it on my Ralvery Notebook.

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