Finishing the Sweater
At the end of my last post, I had worked through the first four steps of my project workflow. I’m happy to say that there were no big surprises due to multiple test swatches (Step 2). As promised, the last four steps of the sweater project are detailed here. But first, a review of the original plan:
Choose texture(s) and technique(s) to explore.
Knit and test swatches. Repeat, as necessary.
Make a rough sketch or other flat representation of the sweater.
Create a technical design for the sweater pieces.
Knit shaped pieces.
Steam block each piece.
Seam the sweater and embellish (if part of the design).
Wash the sweater and lay it flat to dry.
I continue at Step 5.
Knitting the Sweater Pieces
The sweater has just three pieces — the sideways knitted sleeve-yoke-sleeve piece, the front, and the back. Knitting was very straightforward. The front and back are square. The other piece has increases at the very start and decreases at the end to gently narrow the sleeves above the cuffs.
Due to the drop stitch sleeve texture, fully fashioned shaping would never show and was unnecessary. Keeping the location of increases and decreases away from the very edge can be helpful, if you’re using an automatic linker. Since I was not, the few instances of double stitches on the edges from decreases would not get in the way when seaming. The edge increases and decreases, programmed in the previous step, knitted easily. The neat selvages from the tubular knitted cuff were perfect for a split.
The flat tubular knitted cuff
The fact that the edge of each cuff would be different (one — a cast-on, the other — a bind-off) concerned me somewhat. I originally thought I’d do some sort of embellishment on a single cuff to make the difference look more intentional. In the end, the difference didn’t bother me and I kept them looking slightly different.
Steam-Block or Wash
Ordinarily, I would steam-block each sweater piece at this point. I knew the cotton would shrink, and so certain reasons led me straight to washing for the next step:
The variety of stitch patterns meant that each pattern could shrink in different amounts throwing off the way the pieces fit together.
Knits usually have a different percentage of horizontal shrinkage versus vertical shrinkage.
The sideways knitted yoke would share seams with the bottom-up knitted front and back.
I decided it would be necessary to wash and block each piece, before seaming the sweater. I was glad I did, as the pieces would now fit together perfectly for seaming.
Seaming
I do not own a linker. Years ago when I was doing production work, I never constructed or finished the sweaters I knitted. Someone else did. I love watching a skilled, professional linker work. A pro can link a sweater in about one-fifth the time it takes me, and I don’t exaggerate. I haven’t had the chance to practice, and I assume my linking skills remain slow and awkward.
Instead, I used a mattress stitch to connect the front and back to the yoke area and a crochet chain stitch for the side and underarm seams. These were the safe and neat choices for me.
As mentioned above, I didn’t add any embellishment to the cuff. I did use a duplicate stitch in the same yarn at the shoulders to reinforce them, as there were no seams at the shoulders to support the sweater. I then wove in any remaining loose yarn ends.
The completed Three Blues sweater
Finishing
My final step is usually to wash and lay the sweater flat to dry. Since I had already washed the individual pieces before stitching them together, I could now steam the sweater. The Three Blues sweater was done.
O!
If you’re a Kniterate user, you may be interested in my prerecorded Designing with Kniterate classes. If you’re not an owner yet, I’d be happy to give you a virtual tour of the machine.