Whistler Finished: Part 1 of 2

It took a long time to finish up the Whistler even after the main knitting was done. I'm not sure I've ever made something with so much to do after the pieces were done.

After the cutting, I had to sew the back to the front at the shoulder seam. The pattern had you purl a row before casting off, but gave no direction for what to do with it.

First I tried sewing the shoulders together through the "outside" purl bump (which would put the whole stitch inside the seam) but it was too bulky inside and didn't lie flat. So then I tried sewing through the "inside" purl stitch which left half a stitch on the outside of each of the front and back. After the seam is done, it looks like there is one purl row between the front and back. It looks pretty good and lies pretty flat. (And even flatter after a steaming...more on that in a minute.)

Two half purl bumps come together and look like a purl row.
(Between the arrows.)

Once the shoulder seams were done, I had to pick up the stitches for the collar around the neck and knit that. Compared to the whole body, it should have seemed like just a little bit of knitting, but 109 stitches per row is still no small feat!

Once that was done, I picked up and knit the facings along the front opening. Like the collar, you knit out on the "right" side, do a purl row as a fold line and then knit the same length for the "wrong" side. Then I sewed the facings down which covered the cut edges at the front. Then I sewed the collar facing down, making sure to keep it stretchy. (Not that this collar really has to stretch to get over my head, but it's still a good practice.)

When the collar and facings were done, I couldn't resist adding the clasps. The biggest challenge was to keep the clasps lined up evenly from the edge, and to space them equally. I was relieved that the final result looked pretty even to me! Each clasp is sewn down at three points so there will be no wiggling or shifting out of place.

Next up is sewing on the sleeves. I pinned them into place with safety pins (there's no way straight pins would stay in). My go-to seaming stitch is the mattress stitch which is done from the right side. It's a little different in this case because I was matching the end of rows with the side of the row (think of "with the grain" and "against the grain" in wood) unlike side seams where you match two "with the grain" edges and shoulder seams where you match two "against the grain" edges.

On the body of the sweater I picked up yarn between the rows:

This turned out to be more secure than picking up one of the legs of a stitch since you could pick up both the main colour and contrast colour strands. And it made it possible to pick up either from one row or two rows as needed to match the sleeve.

On the sleeve, I picked up the purl bumps like on the shoulder. This time I picked up the "outside" bump so that no purl bumps were visible from the outside.

The sleeves, by the way, were ended with five or six rows of reverse stocking stitch which becomes a facing.

Here is the seam from the inside after the sewing was complete:

The sleeve is on top with the black facing showing; on bottom is the body of the sweater with the cut edge showing. Next step is to sew the facing down over the cut edge.

Flip the facing over to cover the cut seam, and then sew it down:

keeping the sewing very...relaxed. I don't want to say loose because the facing has to actually stay down. But you don't want it to be tight and show through to the front side either!

After it's all done, you have one incredibly neat (if somewhat bulky) sleeve seam:

At some point along the way, I also tacked down the facing on the bottom hem. Here I used a stitch I had read about once; I'm not sure what it's called.

This stitch gives some stretch because the general direction you're sewing is opposite of the direction of your stitch. Coming up at 1, go down at 2 and across to 3. Then down at 4, and up at 5, etc., making sure you grab only the inside loops of the stitches on the garment body. You don't want them to show through on the front side. On the hem, it doesn't matter, as long as you don't go right through to the garment body. I prefer to stitch along the cast on (or off) edge.

The bottom hem came out pretty nice, but you can see it still  has some puckers, especially on the left side here:

After steaming, it looks much better:

I normally use a wet block to flatten out my knitting, but I had recently read a post by a woman that strongly believes in steam blocking. She had some convincing arguments (one of them being: "It's what the professionals do.") so I thought I'd try it. I certainly was not interested in repeating a complete wet blocking just to smooth out the seams I'd just sewn and the collar.

I don't have a steamer (yet) so I just used my iron. Fill it up with distilled water, turn it on high with the steam on, and hoover it over the work. Do not touch the iron to the surface, and certainly do not press down on it. Just let the steam do the work of heating and dampening the wool. Move the iron away and as soon as you can touch it, pat and smooth out the fabric to how you want it. Repeat if necessary. Worked like a charm. I also used it to flatten the shoulder and sleeve seams.

Whew...well, that was probably more than you ever wanted to know about finishing the Whistler. (Unless, of course, you're making your own and looking for tips.)

What a learning process for me with lots of techniques which may get incorporated into future projects.

Whistler Finished: Part 2 of 2

I didn't want to keep you waiting, so I am posting part 2 before part 1. I usually prefer to show the finishing details before the final project, but I didn't want Bonnie to pass out from holding her breath. (ha ha). I'll post part 1 sometime soon.

The pic to the right is my attempt to imitate the cover photo of the pattern book. [Click link to see.] (Except I didn't mirror image it as they did--you can tell because the letters on the "Dale" patch on his sleeve are backwards. That's me--obsessively observing the details.)

Anyway, enough fun and games, let's see a sweater, shall we?

From the front:

(I have to apologize for the distracting scarf--the wind was blowing it around and I didn't bring a mirror out with me!)

And the back:

Now that you've seen the "big picture," let me show you some details.

The folded hem:

Project Stats
Started: 12 Feb '10
Finished: 19 May '10
Part of Ravelympics 2010
Pattern: Whistler 2005 by Dale of Norway
Materials: Dale of Norway/Dalegarn Falk (superwash wool) 17 balls ($117.13); 5 clasps salvaged from Goodwill sweater (<$5?)
It's very smooth and flattering. There's ribbing on the inside to keep it snug, but the stocking stitch on the outside maintains a smooth continuous look. I ended up skipping the shock-cord that it called for. First, I bought the wrong type of cord. Second, I didn't really want that "balloon" look. Third, I'm not really going to be wearing this in Alpine conditions. Fourth, I can always add it later if I miss it.

Sleeve details and join to sweater:

These sleeves do narrow to a very small cuff--good thing I have small wrists. It does keep the wind out though!

The front opening (with clasps): It fits very well partly open

and closed.

The clasps are quite heavy but the sweater has more than enough bulk and heft to hold them up. That is very good. (Nobody likes a droopy neck!)

I finished the sweater on Wednesday. Since then, the weather has turned very warm and sunny (I'm not saying that's a causal relationship...) so I haven't had any opportunity to wear it. Tomorrow night, however, I'm headed to Red Purl so I'll have to have it with me. First thing in the morning might be just chilly enough to justify putting it on!

But before its first public debut, let me show you one more view, especially showing off the maple leaf on the sleeve:

Was it worth the wait?

I certainly think it was worth my work and time!

What Starts with "W" and Ends with "histler"?

That would be: "Whooping long time to finish my Whistler"

It really is. Is a long time. Is dragging.

Usually I'm the one smiling serenely as others complain about sewing together their knit projects. Complain about all that seaming, all that finishing, while I smile because it doesn't bother me. Not today. I'm tired of it.

It's harder when you have thought, "I'll finish it tonight...Tonight's the night." and it's not. And then harder still when you have done this a couple times.

Sunday I finished knitting the collar and then picked up and knit the plackets. Still not done.

Monday I sewed down the sleeve hems, and then sewed down the placket facings. Still not done.

Tonight I sewed on all the clasps (yes, I went with clasps instead of the zipper--just wait til you see it!!), sewed down the collar facing, sewed down the bottom hem, and sewed on the first sleeve. That is a lot of sewing, and yet: Still. Not. Done.

Maybe tomorrow I will get to sew down the sleeve facing, sew on the second sleeve, and sew down that sleeve facing. Right now, I think that's all I have left. (I've been known to delude myself before though, so that's not necessarily the final word.)

In any case, you can see that I am working as hard as I can on it. It is just a lot.

But it will not get the better of me. Because what else starts with "W" and ends with "histler"?

We can't wait to finish the Whistler!

We won't be outdone by the Whistler!

We want to hear cheers for our Whistler!

Until then, I'll just keep slogging on...

Cutting up the Whistler

I've finally done it! Gotten myself to tackle the sewing and cutting of my Whistler sweater.

I got an early start this morning, figuring if anything went wrong I had all day to either fix it, make up for it by succeeding at something else, or drinking a lot of beer in an attempt to forget it.

But never fret, your beer supply is in no danger because things went well!

I started by measuring the width of the top of the sleeve and then measuring that far down on the side seams so I would know how far to cut. I tried to err a little on the small side because it'll look better to have the sleeve a little gathered than the body of the sweater.

I should clarify that I don't really have side seams since the body is knit in the round, but you can see where I inserted a purl stitch. It makes a little gap running up the side edge which 1. makes it easier to keep the body from twisting and 2. provides a guideline to sew straight in the following steps.

But first I had another thing to deal with. While blocking, I noticed some of the white stitches were too loose at the top of the sweater. I was going to leave it because it wasn't too bad, but then I realized that I was about to cut this sweater so I could fix this with no ill effects at all.

So I pulled the white wool from the front and back toward the side seam until I had the right tension and left all the extra wool looped at the side seam:

Now, I didn't want to sew it down like that--I mean that's a mess!! So then I thought of using some masking tape. I pulled all the loops to the side I wasn't sewing and taped them down:

Then I sewed down the one side of the gap from the right side.

I set the machine to a narrow close zig zag and followed the left half of the first knit stitch to the right of the gap (marked by the grey line).

Here's the first side sewn down:

Then I removed the masking tape, smoothed the loops down to the other side, and taped them down again:

Then I sewed it down, following the stitch on the other side of the gap. At this point, I cut off all the extra white loops since they were sewn down on both sides and secure.

Since I'm using superwash wool which doesn't stick to itself like untreated wool, I sewed down each side one more time and across the bottom for a little extra security. For the second pass, I moved out from the gap and sewed down the other side of the knit stitch.

After two passes with the sewing machine, you can see on the wrong side the two lines of stitches and the nice column of knit stitches which will be my guide for cutting:

Cut right down the middle of that"gap" stitch and you get this:

Now I am set to sew in the sleeves, sew the shoulder seam, and sew down the sleeve facing.

The neck required some stitching and cutting as well, but was less trouble. I set the zig zag just a little wider and straddled two stitches for the neck. I ran up and down once on either side of the center stitch (no "gap" stitch here).

I decided not to sew it twice since it seemed to be holding really well, and this area will get less wear than the sleeves.

A trip down the center stitch by the scissors gave a nice slit down the center front.

Stitches will be picked up along these edges to knit a facing and then the collar. And then I install a zipper or Norwegian style clasps.

Then sew down the hems of the sleeves and body, insert the shock cord, and it will be done!

I don't think I'll be making any more progress on this today, but I feel like I've pushed this project over a big hurdle and now progress can continue at will!

Whistler: Preparations for a Finish

Getting back to my Whistler this morning, I finally got the gumption to work on all those ends! It was a job, but I got it done.

I read that some people cut their yarn every row instead of carrying the third colour along or using an intarsia-in-the-round technique. I can't imagine!

For those interested in the details, I generally ran the end through a couple strands of the "purl bumps" on the back for...oh...7 to 8 stitches. (Or whatever worked at that location.)

Once the ends were worked in, it was time for a little duplicate stitch on the front. There was a spot where the pattern told you to skip some white stitches and to just stitch them on afterwards. And since it was before I thought of doing intarsia in the round, I followed the pattern's directions.

Here you can see half of the stitches have been done:
(Compare the right side which is done, and the left where one and half "V"s are missing.)

After the duplicate stitch:
you can see the entire pattern. Duplicate stitches are necessarily a little bulkier since the yarn is doubled there, but done right, they blend right in.

And doing it right is very easy to do. It's done with a needle and length of cut yarn. After threading the needle push it up from the back at the bottom of the stitch you need to copy:

Think of each stitch as a "V." You need to just bring the needle up through the bottom point--marked with a little orange dot in this picture.

Pull the yarn through and then insert the needle in through one top point of the V and out through the other. (I went right to left, but you could go either way.) The points are marked with little red dots in this picture:

Finally, you push the needle back down through the bottom point (orange dot) again to finish the stitch, and then you can come up through the bottom point of the next stitch (green dot) at the same time to start the next duplicate stitch:
Things move along rather easily and smoothly, and pretty soon I was done the front:

Later this afternoon, I then found time and energy to block the pieces. They're drying now:
and then it will have to wait until I'm ready to reinforce the armhole steeks, cut the steeks, sew in the sleeves, reinforce the other steek, cut the other steek, pickup stitches for the collar, knit the collar and sew on the zipper or Norwegian style clasps (haven't decided yet). That's all!

I just read on the Knitting in Color blog that Dale of Norway has started making their pamphlets available for free as pdf files. This is being celebrated greatly as many of their patterns are out of print and very hard to find. (They get expensive quick once they're out of print--like up to $229 for some booklets! Lots of ebay sellers are not going to be happy about this!)

I'm all for free patterns, but I have to admit I still enjoy pattern books and written pamphlets. According to the announcement DON is only releasing patterns online now. But I'll adjust...

I am also feeling a bit ambivalent because the Whistler pattern is included. Now, I am happy for all those people who have not been able to get a much-sought-after Whistler pattern but part of me has to ask: why did I have to buy it? But I try not to be bitter. After all, I couldn't be almost done my sweater right now, if I hadn't gotten the pattern last year.

Now, let's hope I can soon transform "almost done" to done done!

One Arm Flapping

With great joy and relief, I finished my first sleeve on Saturday. You'd think I would have told you by now, and I'm kind of surprised I haven't. But there you go...life's like that sometimes.

In any case, here it is:

and here it is pretending to be attached to the body:

Sort of looks like my sweater's an amputee, doesn't it?

Overall, I think it's looking good. I have all the usual in-process doubts (especially about my tension in this project), but then my other voice tells me it's fine and to stop worrying about it. We'll see at the end, I guess.

Meanwhile, since Saturday I've been playing hookey from this project, needing a break from the serious thinking and setup it takes.

First I made a class sample (another class at Red Purl is being planned for April or May) and then started working on a little something for Easter. I'll give you all the details when it's time...

Intarsia in the Round

A special concern for the Whistler sweater is the sections which require three colour stranding. If the colours were used evenly across the row, you would just have to carry all three with you across the whole round.

But Whistler has sections where the third colour is only used for small areas that line up vertically. So the question is, can you treat this like intarsia? Meaning you would not need to carry the colour all the way around, but could use it only where you needed it.

On the body of the sweater, I figured out one way to do it. It was a little awkward, a little slow (but any method would be), and a little fiddly. Just before starting the colourwork section of the sleeve I happened on a life-changing post on Ravelry which outlined another way. The final result is exactly equivalent to what I had been doing, but the method is more elegant, simpler, and easier to explain to boot!

Ready for some details? Here we go...

I'm knitting around with grey and white, and come to the section where I need to add some red:

I work with the three strands following the chart, working red, white, or gray stitches as indicated. When I get to the end of the red stitches, I simply drop the red and continue working in only grey and white again:
Now I continue the round until I get to the beginning of the section where I need red again:
Now I've got a problem. I need to knit with the red, but it is back on the other side of the section, where I left it.
What to do?

Well, when working the body of my sweater, I looped the red over to where I needed it and worked with the loop (not the end that goes to the ball).
This worked ok (especially if you worked continental with the red loop), but when I got to the end of the red stitches in that round, I would have to go back and adjust the tension of all the red stitches. (Unless I guessed the exact amount I needed and made the loop just the right length, but that never happened.)

As I said earlier, this method worked, but then I found out about method # 2 and found it far superior.

Instead of working with the red loop, you continue working the round without the red, but slipping every stitch that should be red:Continue working with the grey and white and slipping the stitches that should be red until you get to the red working yarn (or the last red stitch on that row--whatever's later).
Now you've "caught up" to the red yarn:
Now you flip your work over so you looking at the back (or purl) side:
You now have the red yarn where you can use it. And what you do is work back across the same section, slipping all the grey and white stitches you just knit...
and purling the previously slipped stitches with the red yarn:Do this until you reach the end of the slipped stitches:
Now flip the work around again so the right side is facing...
and then slip all the stitches from the left needle to right. (They've all been knit now for that row.)

When you get back to the grey and white working yarns, you are ready to continue that round:
Continue knitting with just the grey and white, and now when you come to the section with red stitches, the red yarn is waiting and ready for you:

So, every other round is done as normal three-colour stranding, and the alternate rounds are done with the slipped stitches/purled red stitches.

It really is ingenious. The post I read it in gave credit to a pattern in Interweave Knit's recent issue Knitting Traditions, but I really doubt they're the creators of the method. They "just" explained it and recorded it. People have probably been doing this for eons. (Can I say again how much I love the internet and Ravelry in particular? There's no one I know that could show me this method. Or no one who offered anyway!)

Learning something like this makes me realize that people are smart, and some of them are even damned clever.