Thursday, April 10, 2008

Avoid sewing at all costs!

Wow, I fell off the radar there for a while. Well, I'm back now, and I actually have something to show for.

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My Ruffled Jacket has sleeves now, and I finished sewing them on! But maaan, do I hate sewing! Don't you just find it to be the ultimate anticlimax to a knitting project? "Yay, I finished knitting! Oh crap, I still have a whole bunch of sewing left!"

I tried to minimize the sewing on this cardigan by knitting the sleeves in the round, and I thought I was safe. But then I read further on in the pattern, and I discovered the HORROR. According to the pattern, you're supposed to knit a 10 stitches wide, cabled strip that is long enough to go around the whole outer edge of the cardigan. And then SEW it onto the edge! I mean, come on! Who in their right mind would enjoy doing that? I wasn't having any of it. So I'm doing this instead.

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Picking up stitches around the edge of the cardigan and attaching the cabled strip as it progresses. Sooo much more fun than sewing!

7 comments:

Macoco said...

Your sweater is gorgeous. And I am right there with you about the sewing. I'm sos glad you decided to pick up the stitches as opposed to sewing the cable on afterward!

knittingpanda said...

I love your sweater. I also completely agree about the sewing. I dread doing anything like sewing or weaving in ends in my knitting.

weaverknits said...

Great choice. I don't mind the sewing (honestly!), but your solution is so much more practical!

Tania said...

Hello fellow raveler. I saw your post and had to comment because I totally agree with you. I will finish the knitting portion of a project and it will literally sit for weeks until I gather up the patience to weave in ends, sew on buttons, sew parts together because I LOATHE IT! I just finished the Tangled Yoke Cardigan...no seaming required! I think I'm going to convert all sweater patterns to knitting them in the round now! [peruanachica]

Satu U said...

Wau!! Mikä tekniikka!!

Angelika said...

Nice choice on the sweater. I'm sure you'll make it work just fine.

alligator said...

Hey there! I love the finished pics of your jacket (I saw them on Ravelry and came over to check out your notes).

I love set-in sleeves but I also loathe sewing. A couple sweaters ago I discovered a technique that really helped me... Crochet seams! For me it is much faster and easier to keep an even tension doing crochet for the seams instead of sewing them.

I use what's called "seam stitch" but basically you poke your hook through both layers of fabric, loop the yarn once over the hook, pull that through both layers of fabric, then one more loop of yarn over the hook, pull through the first loop and repeat.

Careful pinning and crochet seams have made seamed sweaters much easier for me!