Gallery of Christmas KnitsPart 2, The Massive Steeking ProjectDecember 29, 2006This sweater gets a post of it's own. It is, to date, the most difficult and involved item that I have ever knit. This post is a little longer than most, because I'm going to walk you through the process. Scroll down to the very bottom for a photo of the finished sweater. |
|
||||||
 |
It all started with 28 colors of yarn from the The Knit Picks Palette Sampler. |
 |
Since many of the colors were really close in color and name (like "Peach" and "Apricot", or "Blush" and "Petal") I had to keep them all straight with careful labeling. Only two balls of yarn allowed out of the bags at once. Sort of like prison. |
 |
So I knit and knit and knit in the round until I had a big tube. This sweater involved steeking, which means that the armholes, the cardigan front, and the neckline are all cut with scissors after the sweater was knit. (For a visual aid, look at the first few photos of this post from September.) |
 |
This is where I started getting nervous. I had to take scissors to something I had spent months knitting. To keep it from unraveling, I machine-stitched the edges I was about to cut. |
 |
But I took a deep breath (no whiskey involved, as I had thought would be necessary), and cut. Viola! Cardigan! And a crewneck! |
 |
Here is the sweater, inside-out. My next challenge was to conquer all of the loose ends from the sleeves. Normally, a knitter has to carefully weave in each one of these. Potentially hours worth of tedious work here. But I was feeling pretty confident with my skillz at using the sewing machine on this sweater by then, so I machine knit up the sleeves (to keep it from unraveling) and just cut these nasty ends right off. |
 |
I was really glad I didn't have to weave these in. The Diet Coke can is here to help you get an idea of how huge this pile of ends was. |
 |
After I had knit on the neckband and button bands, it was time to block the sweater. Here it is, having a nice soak. |
 |
And here it is drying, after being gently nudged into it's finished measurements. |
 |
These are the amazing little pewter buttons from Norway, that happen to suit the sweater perfectly. |
 |
Finally, here is the finished sweater. Pattern: Palette Fair Isle Cardigan Yarn: Knit Picks Palette Sampler, 100% Peruvian Wool, in 30 colors (this sweater only used 28 of the 30 colors) Knit for: My mom Note: This sweater does not have any waist shaping, as this photo might suggest. I just got creative with the photo styling. Time to knit: I started knitting this in March 2006, because I knew there would be a high potential for burn-out. So I knit on this for a few weeks, put it down for a few weeks, and repeated this cycle until I was finished. Would I do it again?: Yes! I gained a lot of confidence as a knitter by conquering this sweater. I feel like I can knit anything now. I talked to my mom (in Alaska) on Christmas Day, and she did all of the appropriate gushing and thanking. And it fits! And she's actually wearing it! Gallery of Christmas Knits, Part 3 on Monday. |
 |
 |
My email - staci@verypink.com |
Chris' email - barkless3@yahoo.com |
