Lining Up

After enduring the jokes about another one-armed sweater for much of Tuesday, I attached the second sleeve last night and Ed is now convinced that his sweater will indeed have two sleeves.  [Perhaps there is an ulterior motive at work.  I will leave as little time as possible before attaching the second sleeve to avoid the jokes, and his sweater is closer to completion.]

This is the trickiest part of the finishing because the center cable must line up with the shoulder seam, and the smaller cables must be arranged symmetrically on both sides of the sweater.

I had not thought far enough ahead on Monday night to realize that the cables on both sleeves must also be arranged exactly, and so I put in thread markers to be sure that the cables would make horizontal stripes on both the fronts and backs.  (The markers fell out as I got to them, and they’re not shown.)  It was slow going on the second sleeve, but the placement is perfect enough for me. 

I need to steam block these sleeve seams and I can tackle the relatively easy side and underarm seams, which I do by going from the bottom of the body to the wrist in one long seam on each side.  That will leave attaching the pocket ribbing to the front, weaving in the loose ends, and sewing on the buttons, and this will be an FO.

Although there are many ways to do almost anything in knitting, I’m always reassured when I find that a master knitter does something the way I do, particularly if it isn’t a popular technique.  Annie Modesitt made me feel good about being a combined knitter and confirmed what I always suspected about knitting this way—the stitches look incredibly even on the fabric.  I had wanted to take Jean Frost’s jacket lining course at Stitches for many years, and I was thrilled to finally get into her class.  In addition to learning how to line one of her Chanel-style jackets, she recommended using a crocheted seam for assembling the jacket pieces—for the very same reasons I like it.  It makes a firm, flexible seam that gives the garment its shape.  Her book has directions that match mine.  Another advantage is that it allows you to weave in ends easily and invisibly because you have the slip-stitch crochet seam to hide the ends.  Unless it is unavoidable, I always join ends at the edge of my work, and so the inside of my garments have no woven in “blobs”.

In the jacket-lining class I learned how to attach a silk lining to one of Jean Frost’s jackets.  I always wondered how you match the stretchiness of the knitting with the stability of a woven lining.  I’m not convinced I know everything there is to achieve this, but her instructions for the boxy Chanel-style jackets will work for me.  The knitting for many of her jackets uses stitches, such as slip stitch, that make a knitted shell that has some stability and less stretch than, say, plain stockinette.  The pieces form the pattern you use to make the lining, and you use a type of quilting to attach the lining to the knitting.  Jean told us that the description would be in a forthcoming book, and so I will not show the details until they’re available for everyone to see.  But the technique doesn’t require darts.  I intend to try it on her Devonshire jacket, and at the rate I complete my garments, the book might be out by time I’m ready to assemble the pieces.  She wore one of the jackets from the book in class, and it was beautiful.  This photo is from the Knitter’s Magazine website showing that jacket and its lining.

So now it’s on to the final finishing steps for “Ed-1”.

Comments

[Caroline M]

Hurrah for Ed-1, so close to the finishing line just as the weather turns cooler.

I don't believe that I have ever lined a knitted item other than a bag but there again I have never knitted a jacket. I shall watch with interest.

[Judy G.]

That jacket in the picture is one of my favourites from the book. I shall watch for instructions for lining when the book comes out- how about letting me know? (You seem to have your finger on the pulse of knitting lit more than I do.)

Have fun at Rhinebeck. I am green with envy.

[tiennie]

This sweater is so amazing! I really think you should enter it in some contests. It would clean house!