Sunday, January 7, 2007

Third times a charm!

I think I should have just spent the day reading!

The Starmore pattern says to graft the shoulders together. Since I have never grafted before - I pulled out my Meg Swanson Sweaters From Camp book and she has a wonderful photo with detailed description. So I was merrily grafting along but the seam was too loose. I pulled the yarn and it broke. I pulled the seam out and picked up the stitches I had used. Started over again.. and yep - it happened again. At that point I dipped into my memory and decided I was more of a 3 needle bind off kind of knitter.

I turned the vest inside out and started the bind off. It went so smoothly - and looked so nice. I turned it back inside in to see my accomplishment - and realized that I seamed the left shoulder front to the right shoulder back. Waahhhh! And this was using navy yarn which at my age is almost impossible to see. I decided to cut the seam - ravel down to a reasonable row - and I reknit (in the flat) the two pieces I had cut. Got them back on holders and FINALLY I think I have done the 3 needle bindoff correctly. Here are the shoulders:





On to the crocheted steeks.. this has to go smoother?

LATER: I sure hope crocheting the steeks saves time later since they take a lot more time than using the sewing machine. May not do this in the future.. but they do look nice once they are cut.

LATER STILL: I almost threw the whole thing out. Have you ever gotten to that point? I had just cut the last steek and I noticed that one of my "redone" shoulder seams was unraveling. SO I redid it another time and the ends of one of the steeks came apart. So - I think its time to put it aside for the day. I will need to reknit the ends of the steeks just to have a facing to turn under. But not tonight!

Just to throw one more negative thought in my mind.. they are expecting a 4th winter storm to hit Denver this week.. I WILL NOT SHOVEL ANOTHER SNOWFLAKE. So I just ordered this:



Its an electric one - I hate to deal with gasoline - and I have an outlet in the front of my garage so it should be easy to use a cord. Now lets hope it arrives before the snow!

5 comments:

AnneB said...

I laughed out loud at your story of crocheted steeks and binding off shoulders. We've all been there, done that but don't bravely admit it in public as you did. Please send snow. I live in Maine and we have none!

Anonymous said...

Ricki, Hope this goes thru. That is a beautiful piece of knitting. I hope you don't toss it. Judy

RickiLynn said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
RickiLynn said...

Its about time you found my blog! Just kidding - Judy is my big sister who puts up with all my knitting experiments! I really am close to tossing it. If my "fake steek" doesn't fold back and not get noticed - its going!

FairyGodKnitter said...

You will love your Toro electric shovel, it's like vacuuming the driveway. Unfortunately, mine has not been used yet this winter as Buffalo has had little snow. Rosarie looks wonderful.