Monday, February 25, 2008

Crossroads

Here is a photo of how far along I am - almost to the armpits. I have no idea why I did the steek all in white, I planned stripes.


This gives a better idea of how it will look. The buttonholes will be bound in red, and hopefully the edge will lay down when blocked.















Now I have to decide how to proceed. I originally was planning on doing the whole thing in the round, with steeks at the armholes, and cutting out the neckline. But the Fana book says to work the front and back separately from the underarms. This makes sense because the neck isn't a "V", it is actually a very large "U", which I like, but I would end up cutting out a lot of knitting. However, it will mean purling, which I try to avoid (and not sure if my knitting will "match"). It will give a nice bound off edge to graft the sleeves onto, though.

Also, I wanted to do some shaping because the sweater that fits me well is 46" at the bottom, and 42" at the chest. I have to figure out how that will affect my sleeves. I've been studying Ethnic Knitting Discovery, Knitting in the Old Way, and Fanatroyer to decide my next steps.

I guess I can start a sleeve while I think about all this. The cuffs are worked flat because there is a slit and button effect, not sure why one wouldn't just steek, though. At least that will be some practice on working the shoulder star motif flat.

4 comments:

Tracy said...

Very nice. You and I are about at the same spot. I'm putting in Gussets in the under arm. I'm still not sure about anything else. I hope you figure it out soon. I'm may "steal" ideas :)

Donna D said...

Hm. What did you do with the dark color behind the solid white steek? Did you weave it in or just strand it? You will have all those floats to cut and deal with if you just stranded it. Are you planning to have a fold-over button band with a facing that can cover them all?

Janice said...

Yes the dark color is carried behind, caught behind every couple stitches, the steek is only four stitches, so I'm not concerned about ravelling. I practiced on my swatch (not my headband!) and the stitching held it together fine.

Yes, it has a fabric facing on the back and ribbon trim on the front, all around the opening. The buttonhole stitching will be through the facing. The buttons go right on the body, next to the trim, not on a band.

I've been meaning to do a sketch and post it, because the only photos I have are in a book, I haven't been able to find any legal ones on the internet.

Melissa Barton said...

You can never go wrong with black and white. I just love it!