Thursday, June 21, 2012

Putting It Together

Seaming a sweater is a bit.. of a problem for me.  It is my second least favorite thing to do, right after holding an entire one-piece sweater in my lap while knitting, and trying to drag it around with me.  I decided long ago that knitting a sweater in pieces is the smart thing to do.  I can easily carry one piece at a time, making the project flexible to transport and cooler to knit in the hot Texas weather.  But then there is seaming!!

I love the big blue cardigan with the rolled collar that I knit last fall, but it did not go together well.  The yarn was Debbie Bliss Cashmerino.  The fantastic yarn knit up beautifully and is soft and comfy and an enjoyable sweater to wear.  The seaming--not so much in the enjoyable category!  It split, pulled, stretched unevenly and generally was a bit.. more than difficult.  It still doesn't look good and I'm wondering if I can stitch it with the sewing machine and make it all better.  

I have tried several methods of seaming:  mattress, horizontal, whip stitching, three needle bind-off.  None is perfect and a couple of them are terrible.  I usually end up using mattress stitch which is never ideal for shoulder seams.  I need to take a class on sweater joining.  

Anyway, it's done and two projects have taken the place of the long-running Lace Edged Cardi.  Here are Lace Edged Hat which I am calling "Snow on Ice" (can you see the glitter?): 
 and a simple sweater with a large collar that promises to rival Lace Edged Cardi in time consumption:
 
I'm a fool for punishment but life is good.


4 comments:

SissySees said...

Beautiful. I'll have to chew on your portability notion that makes seaming less ... distasteful.

I love that sparkly yarn!!!!!!

Nancy said...

Wow, I love "Snow on Ice": it is gorgeous!

I'm not a big fan of seaming and avoid it whenever I can.

kathy b said...

But Katherine ......YOU did the seaming! I hire the finisher at my LYS or have Al do it. She's an amazing finisher.

Hooray for you you you.

Must watch the BODYGUARD...having read your Chan comment...I have never seen it

Grace said...

I have a friend who seams all of her sweaters with the sewing machine, using tissue paper under the foot and on top of the yarn and seams away and then tears it away, perfect seams all the time