Cheryl Oberle differentiates cardigans and sweaters and other garments meant as an outer layer by the elements and construction in her designs. “Knitted jackets very widely in style from short and fitted to long and roomy. Structure of the jackets is, for the most part, simple; there is no elaborate shaping and most are designed to have a minimum number of seams, allowing them to be ‘knitted together’ rather than sewn.” In Knitted Jackets 20 Designs from Classic to Contemporary, Cheryl sticks to her design principles. The patterns in this book are mostly basic, with a larger ease than normal for use as a true outer layer over other clothing. The designs themselvse are unique to each other, and despite the book coming out in 2008 remain entirely wearable.
The designs range from full-size cabled jackets like the Edwardian Day Coat with classic lines and clean, swooping cables to Inish, which knit in a tight-enough gauge would probably be bullet-proof. There are lacy boleros and classy stranded, sculptural styles like Ivory Leaves and Bergen.
The only jacket that I don’t think I’d make would be the Baltic Bodice, but that mostly stems from the rather unfortunate photo styling and yarn colors used. All I could think of looking at it was that it was crooked on the model, and would probably fall right off if you didn’t hold it closed. The contrast between the black of the body and the white and black textured sleeves make it look unbalanced. Looking at the schematic it’s entirely a trick of the eye. That’s entirely my personal opinion though, and in colors that were a bit more subtle the jacket would be lovely indeed. Seeing that styling decision was pretty shocking, because between this book, Folk Vests, and Folk Shawls I have never once noticed something less than flattering, but it only stuck out to me because the other 99 percent of the time everything about the styling in her books is perfect.
Since this isn’t in her Folk series, we don’t get as much as the historical background behind the inspiration , but there is still plenty to learn. She’s gone out of her way to use yarns from the cultures she was inspired by, which is a nice touch.
I’ve managed some decent progress on my Egyptian Socks . There is something to be said for stranded socks, they seem to come together so quickly they knit themselves. I’m using a black-gray variegated tonal yarn with a solid colored yarn, which gives the pattern serious depth.