Friday, March 4, 2016

What is the right number of cardigans?

Anyone?

Pretty soon I'm going to run out of storage space. But I may not be able to stop making them.

Wear it open
Wear it closed
This is the one I was planning in my last post. It goes pretty well with my new grey pants.

Machine knitting - it's fast. I started the actual knitting on February 27 and finished the garment today, March 4. It would have been finished even faster but I wet-blocked each piece and it took a while for them to dry.

The cardigan is exactly what I hoped it would be. Long with a cozy collar in this nice springy wool (Briggs & Little Sport).

The ribbing is really nice and springy - it's a kind of 2 x 2 ribbing that can't be done in hand knitting. Basically you fit two purl stitches in the space for one knit stitch on the front bed of a knitting machine, and two knit stitches in the space for one purl stitch on the back bed. There is no slack anywhere in this type of ribbing. I may use it exclusively from now on!



See those added stitches? Maybe not...

I was able to insert ribbing stitches in the middle of the fronts (at the point where the stockinette switches to ribbing) to widen the collar slightly, without changing its outer edge, as you can see in the photo to the left.

Collar seam - inside back neck
The back neck is hand sewn so I could figure out exactly where to seam the ribbing together. One nice thing about machine knitting is that it's super easy to knit a few extra rows more than you will need, and knit the piece off on waste yarn that protects the open stitches while you are blocking and handling the piece, and can be unravelled and tossed away later. Once I had sewn the neck seam to the CB point, I new exactly which rows of the ribbing I had to seam up. I joined them with a chain stitched seam made with a crochet hook through the corresponding stitches. It's less obvious than any other way to join this seam. And with steam, the ribbing pulled back in very nicely despite the seam.

More details can be found on my Ravelry project page.

And for you sewing enthusiasts, never fear. I haven't totally gone to the dark side. I'm going to up the pace of progress on my striped jacket of many colours next.

9 comments:

  1. There is officially no limit; I only know this because my husband refers to the cardigan sweater part of my closet as "Skittles: Taste the rainbow."

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    1. And when you die, and someone else clears out your closet for donations, the thrift store of choice will hang them all together on one rack in rainbow order so that the rest of humanity can marvel at the sight. I saw just such a display last Saturday, at the North Elm Street location.

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  2. Ahem...the dark side? To me, machine knitting combines both knitting and sewing. I've knit yardage that I can't buy in stores, and then cut it as if it came on a bolt. I know you were kidding...great looking cardigan. I haven't looked at your Ravelry yet, but I think I know what pattern it is.

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  3. The right number of cardigans? .... I sorted my mothers cardigans recently - she will be 90 next month - she had the grand total of 86 cardigans - this did not include jumpers. Nearly one for every year of her life! I wonder whether anyone can beat that!

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  4. I think there is no maximum number of cardigans for a Canadian. And that looks so warm and cozy. Your stuff makes me want a knitting machine!

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  5. Kay, your cardigan is lovely. I agree with Tanit-Isis on wanting a knitting machine. At my age now, (75 shhhh) I don't know about the learning curve; no teachers locally. I wish I'd checked them out years ago. I have some yarn purchased in Donegal Ireland some years ago that I had planned for a sweater for my DH. Every winter I think I'll do it . . . . I love your knitted projects.

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  6. You are amazing! No limit on cardis...just go for it and do what you want to do!!

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