Sublime fantasy

     I have been going full speed ahead on my Sublime organic cotton sweater these past few days.  I'm very excited for it to make its public debut in the coming weeks, expecting April highs in the 60's.  I can just see myself strolling the Old Port taking in the sights, Ned on my arm, Loeffler Randall rain boots on my feet...


     The sweater is so close to being done I can taste it!  I thought I'd share a few helpful tips I figured out for myself to solve some small problems that may frequently arise during the process of sewing up a knitted garment.


     I had to attach two flaps on the sides of the hood partway down the neckline...but the hood flaps were longer than the portion of seam it was supposed to match on the neckline.  To solve this problem and similar ones, first figure out which piece is short and which is long.  Rather than counting stitches, I prefer to just match where you know it needs to match, and start sewing it up.  Then you'll have an idea of how much needs to be taken in.

     Then take out all or part of what you have done and just gradually "pucker" the longer side.  In the case above, for the grafting technique, rather than wrapping one stitch, I wrapped a stitch and a half each time.  For a vertical mattress stitch seam, go through only one "bar" instead of two on the side that is too short.  Depending how much needs to be taken in, you could do these things on every stitch, or alternating stitches.  Just keep redoing the seam until it looks great!

Admiring my gentle pucker.