“Einstein” Coat with Modifications by Myra Heintz

Myra knit her “Einstein” Coat with a group of Ample-Knitters in the winter of 2003. See more details on the Einstein Project Pages. Myra writes, “I finished my Einstein in January after starting Xmas night - my Xmas knitting was done and that was my ‘reward!’ I had my son take some pix of me in it while visiting my mom in Ky where it had snowed a few days before. I thought that made an appropriate setting.”

One of the concerns of the Einstein Group has been that the original design leaves a lot of fabric under the arms for larger knitters. Myra did a very interesting modification to her coat, adding a gusset and modified drop shoulder. Her detailed explanation is below.

As to the bulky underarms on the Einstein, I did a sort of modified drop shoulder on mine. It was more to have the line separating the top and skirt hit in the place I wanted it to without having 14” armholes! What I did was leave several inches open at the underarm area when picking up stitches to knit the bodice fronts and back. Then when the bodice parts were done, I picked up sts in those open areas and knit rectangular gussets doing a “sew as you go” with the sides of the bodice. I knit these gussets for a few inches until the armhole was going to be the size I wanted it, then picked up for the sleeves. I think I did a “sew as you go” here too until past the gusset part then joined at the underarm to finish the sleeve. I thought it worked pretty well.

For detail photo of Myra's modified sleeve and gusset, click here. (Will open in a pop-up window.)

I knit it out of the Colorado that is on Smiley's web page. It feels nice and was easy to knit but I think it may have less yardage than stated as I had to order more yarn mid project. I think it is going to pill a bit too. Just a little review in case anyone else is thinking of using it.

Hope this may help someone!