Finishing a Sweater

I've noticed a sad but interesting thing about myself and, in my very rough calculation, this seems to apply to about 50% of knitters I meet everyday. Some projects, like hats, are very easy to finish, but those that require "making up" can sit, completely knitted, in a closet for years just waiting to be finished and shown off. Let us not fear success! Just think of all the compliments you will receive on your sweater, of the baby that is now six months old and in need of a hand knit blanket, or whatever the incentive that works for you.


If you haven't noticed, I'm trying to motivate myself here.  I have been working on a coat-style sweater on commission since October now.  In my defense, I had to take a break from it for my Christmas knitting, at which time I was able to finish several different projects, though mostly small ones.  But I finished almost all of the main knitting on this sweater about two weeks ago and I've just been avoiding the assembly of the pieces, the next necessary step.  So today I forced myself to sew the side seams and the sleeve seam of the one trial sleeve.  Note that it took no more than an hour.  Oh, and it didn't hurt at all!

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.