Thank you for your lovely comments about Marilyn! I just hope she stays in shape after some wear. Someone on Craftster asked about the what-to-wear-beneath dilemma... probably a camisole would be fine but it's not as if you could tell (esp. given my dearth of endowment) if I wore nothing, since the sweater is so thick and all. As I said to the Craftster poster, my only worry is that there's too much stretch in the collar, so if you see me on the street somewhere, topless, with Marilyn about my ankles, you'll know what happened.
On Blocking...
So in other knitting developments, the knitting for Colchique is complete - now it's just blocking and all those fancy French seaming techniques to contend with. On the blocking question, I've never blocked a sweater before seaming (cringe), but I'll need to do it here. I've also never used pins when blocking. (I'm sorry! Please don't hurt me!) Anyone have advice for blocking a piece smaller? The back is a bit larger than the front - gauge issues, but if I can get it to shrink just a bit, it will work out. I'm also debating whether to invest in a blocking board for this and the USMP, since both may need some agressive blocking. Any suggestions about the merits of a board versus other types of blocking surfaces?
On a New (to me) Method of Seaming Live Stitches...
On the seaming question - check out the method suggested by Phildar for seaming the live stitches of the collar to the body, as demonstrated very clearly by Valette from the French Knitalong.
It's ingenious! The only other time I've worked with live stitches was on the Hourglass Sweater, and I found the method suggested there sort of gut wrenchingly stressful. With Valette's method, you knit a few extra rows in a second color, then just frog as you go so you don't need to wrestle with waste yarn or extra needles as place holders. That was totally new to me.
On Fair Isle and Steeking...
Okay, next topic. I frogged the Silky Wool Yoked Cardigan begun over the summer. She was oddly sized, plus the best way to do it right might be to knit her as a pullover, then steek her. Which brings me to steeks. Inspired by the stunning work of Felicia and Diana, I'm considering Baby Norgi for no one in particular, just as a way to try steeking and fair isle. I'd probably try the crocheted steek method, though I don't know how to crochet, exactly. I might have to convince someone to actually teach me how to steek via that method, because it seems like a lot to figure out on one's own.
Of course, Eunny's beautiful fair isle Norwegian Socks from Folk Socks have also stoked the fair isle fire within, and if fair isle is in the future, these may be first in line.
On Reality...
*Ow!* Okay, okay! USMP has just smacked me with one of her nonexistent sleeves. Of course, USMP, you come first! No more daydreaming! I'm hoping to return to USMP before, let's say, the end of the month. Then it's on to Forsa, and possibly Lady Eleanor. And then, after all that, let the daydreaming finally re-commence.
Jon (www.thejonblog.com/knit) seems to have a good bit of FI experience and might be a nearby person to get a personal tutoring session with regarding the steeks.
Posted by: Laura at October 24, 2005 1:40 PMI have been using a 20" x 30" piece of foam core for blocking, and have no complaints. It is easy to pin into, the pins stay in place, and it only cost $3 as opposed to about $80 for the blocking board.
Posted by: laura at October 24, 2005 3:33 PMI broke down pretty early on and got a Sew EZ Board, and it's worth every penny. I figure once I've invested in the few major knitterly tools (winder/swift/scale/blocking board), that's it. And also why spend all that time on something but not have the tools to properly handle the yarn and pieces? Or so I rationalize. Just yesterday I got some Silk Garden with intentions towards Lady Eleanor. We can KAL, perhaps.
Posted by: jillian at October 24, 2005 3:45 PMI've tried the blocking smaller route, and unfortunately, it's a no go. You can block bigger but not really smaller. If your front and back and differently sized, you can try to block the front a bit bigger to fit the back but short of felting, I'm not sure how you'd get the back smaller, other than seaming it smaller? Maybe if you sewed your seams with a sewing machine you could cut the excess seam allowance? Just guessing here but good luck!
It's been fun seeing all your FOs!
Sara
There is a 50% off coupon on Joann fabric today if you do decide to get the blocking board. The coupon code is OCTH550
Posted by: Laura at October 24, 2005 7:24 PMMore here - http://www.ebook-search-queen.com/
Posted by: anneta at July 14, 2009 2:43 AM