Caution: Images of a sewing on knitting below

The following entry has images that may be traumatizing or at least downright appalling to some knitters. Viewer discretion is advised. For those of you who love to twist your necks at knitting crashes with a "for the grace of God go I" attitude, read on...

For six days the Colinette sweater lay on our dinning table. I walked by it throughout each day, ignoring it as best I could. I started Rogue. I started Mindful Sweater. Occasionally I would give it my attention, only to turn away in fear.

Now, I'm not scared of joining any more. I've joined entrelac seamlessly at the shoulders (took a break there to pat myself on the back for my ingenuity), I've joined patternwork. I am not a weenie. Really. But I knew this would be bad.

I also knew that my DH would not let another weekend go by without commenting upon this elephant in our dinning room. He was totally quiet all week as we ate every dinner at the kitchen table (not normal for us). But I knew I had to face it or it was going to end up back in the closet again.

So, yesterday I arrived at the battlefield prepared. I was going to emerge victorious. Several books for seaming tips, measuring tape, pins and hot tea were at my side. I straightened out the sweater and sleeves, oh so carefully adjusting and pinning the caps for perfect alignment. I was honoring the process. Treating the sweater with respect. Approaching with reverence. (Yes, this is vacillating wildly between war and religious imagery).

Trust that I followed normal procedures for sewing cap to body. But this is no normal cap or body. The yarn is knitting on #17 US and is thick/thin. Per manufacturer's instructions, I had alternated between several balls of yarn all the way up the body front and back, leaving thick streams of carried yarn at the edges. It does break the color pooling, but at a cost. This is what my correctly joined executed seam looked like:

All well and good, except for this:

Gakkkk. There's bulk and there's BULK!

This just didn't seem good. How could this be good? But I soldiered on. (we've dropped the reverence now, this is a battle) I went ahead and did the other side too. I got some sustenance to carry me through. A vendor from Italy sent a huge gift basket to my DH. He shared most with his people, but a few items found their way home. OH MY, but these are good. Super rich milk chocolate with a hazelnut layer. Why are off-the-shelf European chocolates so much better? We are a nation that has ruined out taste buds with crappy food and accept candy with the descriptions like "chocolaty taste" and "chocolate flavored" as sad substitutes.

Anyway, here are both sleeves from the inside in all their gory glory. BTW, sorry about the imperfect photos, but a slightly blurry natural light photo is sometimes easier to read visually than an over-lit flash photo. I would like a new camera... but...

So, at this point I was still denying what my eyes told me and going forward. Hey I thought, maybe if I sew up the sleeves and try it on there'll be no issue right? Comfortable as can be (with a rope under your armpit) right? Now the sleeves are another matter. I was able to use a half-stitch method of joining to reduce bulk. I've been wanting to try this technique since the knitting maven at my LYS suggested it for something else. Rather than picking between rows, you pick 1/2 of a stitch on each side to make one. I will be using it on my current Mindful Sweater. It would have been much better with tighter, more uniform edge stitches, but it worked OK here. Not perfect, but good enough and not too bulk to wear.

Now, afterward I think it was a bit silly to do the sleeve before what I did next, but I wasn't thinking, I was forging ahead. I was going to get done that night. I was going to finish.

BTW, I did try to undo one shoulder up to the top join (I use the start at the center top seaming technique) and grab only 1/2 stitch from the sides, but there was just too much weirdness to overcome. That experiment still shows on the final product, but only to me (I hope).

So, with one arm done, I put it on and - OH SURPRISE - the shoulder fit was horrible. Ill-fitting, strangely shaped, just plain &$*%^ ugly. This would not do. So in a fit of temper, I got out my sewing machine (to the delight of my youngest child who never tires of mom's new dramas) and proceeded to sew my sweater seams. This is not the calm sewing of a quilt shop. Nothing about this sewing was right and I know I did it very badly. Don't care. Nothing was going to stop me at that point.

After much cursing under my breath, tugging, pulling and forgetting to put the machine arm down (I hate when I do that!) I had sewed the living #$#%% out of the shoulder joins. Had to undo a bit of the sleeve on the one arm, but that was no big deal. Should I have blocked first? Yeah, probably. Should I have tried joining with a thinner yarn? Yeah, of course. Should I have thought about how to sew it properly? Yeah, certainly. But delay would have likely landed this puppy back in the closet for eternity. Instead I got to take the scissors to my nemesis and throw this away! YEAH - take that!

After stitching and bitching my way through the shoulders I joined the sleeves fully. Took the extra yarn from the joins and whip stitched around the sewn shoulder because, yes, full disclosure here, things were not all caught perfectly. A little reinforcement was required. This is a pic of the side, arm and shoulders seams as they ended up.

So, there's a happy ending to this tale of woe. It fits and is comfortable to wear. My husband said it looked good on me. And it's no longer on our dinning table but rather in my closet.

Comments

[lynette]

Congratulations! It does look nice.

[Colleen]

Looks great! Congratulations.

[Jackie]

Nancy - you are amazing! I can't wait to see a picture of you WEARING the wonder sweater!!

[Lolly]

Love the way this sweater looks--that thick and thin yarn is so pretty! Can you model it for us? :)

[amanda]

nancy--so glad to have found your blog! a very enjoyable read. btw, the yarn you are using for the fbs...where'd you find it? i googled it unsuccessfully. thanks!

[mzundercover]

it turned out great!

[Jen M]

Good for you for being in charge of your knitting, instead of the other way around! It looks beautiful, and I imagine that you will be able to laugh about the whole thing someday...far in the future... :)

[michelle]

wow! that looks awesome! you should be proud. you totally made that sweater your own!! it's just gorgeous!