I've been working on a "simple, quick knit" sweater since last February. Sigh. It's mostly a matter of not making time for it. But really, it seems to take experienced knitters a couple of weeks and I've dragged it on for nearly a year. I'm in the final stages now. Finished up the sleeves, just need to sew up some seams, finish the neckline, and block it. Easy, no? You'd think so, but I'm having comic difficulty with the final easy steps. Must be a lack of practice - since I so rarely finish something knitted, I just don't remember what all goes into it.
With that said, I relate to you last night's adventures in shoulder seaming...
First, get kid's jammies on, escape to living room to work on sweater. Locate embroidery needle for stitching up the seam. Match up shoulders, start sewing. Oops, he's done reading books with Daddy, time to help kiddo settle down. Maybe he'll look at a book on his own. Yeah, try that.
Back to the living room. Finish up one seam, flip it over to see how it looks. Yikes. Crappy. What did I do wrong? I was carefully stitching down below the cast off row, but it appears that I didn't have the cast off facing flat up, so a few of the edges were showing on the outside. Bad, bad, bad. Unpick, unpick, oops, need to deal with not-sleeping kid...
1/2 hour later. Kid's asleep. Okay, still need to unpick and try again. I'll put in the movie I was watching last night to finish it up too. Yeah, that won't be distracting, what with the subtitles and all. Unpick, unpick. Okay, ready to try again. Flattening out the edges nicely, stitch stitch stitch. Well, that's looking better. Yeah, much better. WAIT! Why did I just sew the two front shoulders to each other??????? Grr. Unpick, unpick, unpick.
Okay, third time's the charm. Try again. Oh - I should get those little clippy things I used once to hold it together. Matched FRONT shoulder seams to BACK shoulder seams? Check. Clipped into place? Check. Edges nicely lined up? Check. Stitch, stitch, stitch. Hey, that looks better. Shows a little bit, but not badly. Let's make it good and tight then. I think I'll weave in the ends really snug, then call it a night (and night it is: 11:30).
Next day, hmm, I need to pick up stitches to do the neck. I remember reading some technique for that, where was that? Do an online search for picking up stitches, notice articles on finishing techniques, and then recall - D'oh! I did a plain 'ol sewing stitch (in & out, every stitch) and I should have done a backstitch or mattress stitch to get it all flat & even. Ugh!
So, what's your vote? Live with it, or unpick YET AGAIN (at least it's only 6 inches total) and do it right. Keep in mind that with this sweater, I've started the body twice (frogged the first attempt at 3 inches when I realized it would be enormous) and one sleeve once (had thought it would be too loose at the wrist, so I narrowed it, then realized it looked terrible that way).
Sigh, is it any wonder this has taken nearly a year?
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5 comments:
Do you want my opinion of what I *would* do or what I think *should* be done? I would leave it out of frustration and then be irritated every time I wore it because it wasn't finished right. Sigh. Maybe I'm not the one to advise.
I love this sweater and if I thought in a million bizzilion years I would finish it I would do it in a heart beat. I would also say re-do the seam ~this is a very wearable sweater and to not have it be what you want it to be is well ~frustrating but I think you know how that feels when it comes to that sweater.
Unstitched. Sitting in the naughty corner while I work up the energy to first BLOCK it, then do it right. Sigh.
Hmmm. Very reminiscent of sewing projects done late at night. I finally realized that the third unpick was not a charm, it just meant to give it up at that point and come back to it the next day. I vote for doing it right or you will never feel good in it. Happy stitching.
Ugh, what a pain!! But you will love it once it get done.
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