I didn't have too many problems with the tartan jacket to make me want to pull my hair out. This thing knits up so quickly. Always a plus for me. First issue was quantity of skeins. I'm making the smallest size and may need one more MC (spice) skein to complete the collar and cuff-- it's a real close call. I still haven't use my second skein of teal, and may not need it. Second issue for me was gauge, I had to go up to size 15 because the 13s weren't cutting it. I should know better than to knit without first gauging!!! It gets me everytime. With the 15s I still had to knit loosely. Still I had some difficulty getting the rows to gauge as indicate in the pattern, but increasing the MC sections by a row or two did the trick.

With the sleeves I had to add a total of four increase stitches: that's two more on each side, which gave me more room in the upper arm. This must be the cause of the MC shortage. The additional stitches were helpful because without additional stitches to decrease the sleeve cap came out too short and did not fit the armhole. Instead of knitting 19 inches to the sleeve cap shaping I went for 18 inches, and still the sleeves seem really long.

Lastly, how to keep yourself from getting all tangled up. After having established the vertical color pattern for the intarsia knitting you'll want to avoid creating a hole between the between the two stitches by securing (twisting) the yarn as you knit; it takes two rows to get secure/twist the yarn. Being consistent will help keep the yarn from tangling up. At the end of one color and at the start of the next take the yarn of the next color from underneath the just knitting yarn to knit. For example, you establish the color pattern this way: MC, rust, MC, teal, MC, etc. Knit MC; take rust yarn from underneatch MC and knit rust; take MC yarn from underneath rust yarn and knit MC; do this to the end of the row. Turn the piece to knit the next row. Remember to note which direction you turn: On the next row do the same thing as the first row. It is important to take the next color from underneath, and knit to the end of the row. Turn your piece in the opposite direction, so if you did it clockwise turn back counter clockwise. Comb your fingers through the trail of yarn and the twisting is gone!!