Celtic Ice

Celtic Ice Knitted Jacket by Christiane Burkhard

Project Overview

Celtic Ice is an intermediate-level knitted jacket designed by Christiane Burkhard, featuring sophisticated cable work and textured stitch patterns. This downloadable knitting pattern creates a fitted garment with decorative cable edging and moss stitch detailing throughout the body.

What Is Being Made

This pattern produces a tailored knitted jacket with shaping at the waist and armholes. The design includes multiple size options and incorporates both decorative cable elements and functional construction techniques. The jacket features a structured silhouette achieved through strategic increases and decreases worked at regular intervals.

Knitting Techniques Used

The Celtic Ice jacket employs several intermediate knitting techniques that add visual interest and structure to the finished garment:

• Cable Knitting: The pattern features cable stitches created by slipping stitches onto cable needles and holding them either in front or in back of the work before knitting, creating the distinctive twisted rope-like texture characteristic of Celtic-inspired designs
• Moss Stitch: The main body of the jacket is worked in moss stitch, a textured pattern that creates a dense, fabric-like appearance
• Shaping: Strategic decreases and increases are worked at specific row intervals to create waist definition and proper armhole fit
• Bind-Off Shaping: Armhole shaping begins with binding off multiple stitches at the beginning of rows, followed by gradual decreases to create a smooth armhole curve
• Circular Knitting: The pattern uses circular needles, allowing for seamless construction or working back and forth as needed

Stitches Used

The pattern incorporates essential knitting stitches including knit stitches, purl stitches, and slip stitches for edge finishing. The cable edging uses cable crosses created by slipping groups of three stitches onto cable needles, holding them in front or back of work, and then knitting the next three stitches before knitting the held stitches. Moss stitch alternates knit and purl stitches in a specific sequence to create texture throughout the jacket body.

Materials and Yarn

Celtic Ice is designed to be worked in super chunky weight yarn, which creates a warm, substantial fabric perfect for a jacket. The pattern suggests yarn options including Ellyn Cooper's Yarn Sonnets, Wooly Bear, and Sheep Shop Yarn, with yardage requirements of 2 to 4 skeins depending on the size being knitted. Super chunky yarn allows the cable and moss stitch patterns to show clearly while reducing overall knitting time.

Needles and Tools

This pattern requires US 10½ / 6.5 mm needles, specifically a 32-inch circular needle for working the main body sections and double-pointed needles of the same size for smaller circumference areas. The circular needle format enables efficient knitting of the jacket pieces, whether working in the round or flat.

Sizing and Finished Measurements

The Celtic Ice jacket is available in multiple sizes with varying stitch counts and finished measurements. The back piece begins with 68, 72, 76, or 82 cast-on stitches depending on size selection. Finished length measurements range from 21 to 23 inches, with armhole shaping occurring at approximately 12.5 to 13.5 inches from the cast-on edge. Waist shaping is incorporated through decreases every 12 to 14 rows, followed by increases to create a flattering silhouette.

Difficulty Level

Rated as an intermediate pattern, Celtic Ice requires solid foundational knitting skills including comfort with cable techniques, reading pattern instructions, and managing shaping. Knitters should be familiar with working decreases and increases, using cable needles, and understanding how to shape garment pieces. The combination of textured stitches and structured shaping makes this an appropriate project for knitters with some experience beyond basic techniques.