Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Finishing

I hate seaming sweaters, but the list of this year's goals has inspired me; I managed to finish up the knitting on the IM Aran last Friday, and for once, I wasted no time in throwing the bits and pieces into some water and laying them out to dry.

I pinned out the body pieces to measurement (22 inches across for each), but the sleeves I just laid flat and smoothed out. I pinned the strips for the saddle shoulders down because they were twisting a bit. This proved to be a good idea, since the girls later admitted to going up to the guest room and jumping on the bed.

Blocked cable

Blocked cable

Blocking sleeves

I've sewed in the sleeves and knit the collar, but a few problems have cropped up. The first is that I obviously miscounted the rows needed for the waistband ribbing, and it's a bit shorter then the ribbing on the sleeves and collar. The second problem is that it turns out I probably should have knit the 46 size, not the 44. I'm hoping I can block it out a bit wider, to meet Himself's specific requirements, but I may be out of luck. Thnakfully I've figured out tentative fixes for both issues: if post-seaming and re-blocking, the ribbing is still too short, I'll pick up the stitches, pick out the cast on edge (groan!) and knit a bit more ribbing. If it's still too narrow through the body, I will not rip out the whole thing and redo it - that would require a good divorce lawyer. Instead, I'll knit two strips of ribbing/seed stitch about an inch wide, and sew them in at the sides. I'll need to carry the gusset up through the armpit and down the sleeves a bit, which might add way too much volume to the sleeve, but we'll wait and see. Blocking first!

1 comment:

Carroll said...

So bummed that I missed your contest back at the beginning of January. I resolve to do better about keeping up on your blog!

The sweater for your man-beast is awesome. Equally awesome is your idea for adding seed stitch panels. I would think that after you reach the armpitty area if you just do a fast decrease you can eliminate the possible problem of adding too much volume to the sleeve. Or just tell IM to do more bicep curls and lateral arm raises. ;-)

If I found myself in your situation, I would be the proud owner of a beautiful new aran-style handknit sweater!