New job.
New city.
I have lots of reasons for my silence. No time to post. No time to knit. I am lucky to get one row a night done on this pretty thing
(Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn Clark)
which was due by my mother's birthday. Which was two weeks ago.
I only have 8 rows to go.
(This is, obviously, what I am making with my beloved handspun laceweight BFL. It's my biggest handspun project to date, and giving it away is a supreme act of generosity because I love it so much. Perhaps that's another reason it's taking me so long to finish.)
I wanted to end 2007 with a post about finishing. Better late than never.
I was very despondent about my finishing skills after my first Baby Surprise Jacket (see here).
But I made two great strides before 2007 was over.
For one thing, I made a second BSJ that I was much, much happier with than the first one.
The reason? This:
I can't remember where I read a blogger's description of reinforcing the button band by sewing ribbon tape on the reverse side of the button band and doubling the buttons. But I tried it. And it worked like a charm (and even went through the washer and dryer like a charm). As a result the sweater seemed to me much crisper, neater, and, well, more finished.
The other stride involves the poor languishing still-unfinished Chanel Crossing (most recently blogged about here). It's all sewn up, ends are woven in, and the border is kicking my ass. I'd love to be able to wear this to my new office before it gets too warm, but I'm not counting on it.
But the revelation here involved CROCHETED SEAMS.
Now, my first knitting book, and therefore my touchstone, was Maggie Righetti's Knitting in Plain English. I still think this book is delightful. But some of its outspoken views are, well, not my own. Primary among these is her repudiation of the crocheted seam. If I remember correctly (I can't refer to the book since I have loaned it to a new knitter), she equates crocheting the seam on a knit sweater to pouring canned chocolate sauce all over a delicately flavored soufflé. Or something along those lines. So I read that and vowed I would never crochet a seam.
Well, Maggie, you are wrong, wrong, wrong. Because if I had tried to stitch-seam the sleeves on a three-color tweed jacket, I would have basically gone mad. You can't even mattress-stitch these pieces properly, because of the way the colors vary at the end of every row.
Instead, I got this.
This is a shoulder. It may not look all that great to you, but believe me, no other sleeve I've set in, or rather attempted to set in, would withstand such close scrutiny.
And on the inside, the seam is a nice straight line.
(Sorry for the crap photo. I guess you'll have to take my word for it.)
There are different ways to set in a sleeve, many of them involving the equivalent of grafting, and I will continue to hone my skills in them. But I can guarantee that this jacket would never have looked so crisp had I not crocheted those seams.
For photographic proof that the whole thing DOES look good, though, you may have to wait another couple of months.
