Friday, February 29, 2008

Swatch

I finally have a swatch to show. As you can see, my gauge in the lower portion is different from the upper. I'm making this sweater for my 3-yo son and used the weaving method to prevent longer floats (floats and wild 3-yos don't go together). I wonder whether or not that makes the difference in gauge or if it would be that way regardless. In either case, I suppose I'll just go up in needle size when I get to the motif. And I'll probably do a zig-zag pattern along the bottom. Anyway, I love my colors (except the brown) and the yarn I'm using, which is JaggerSpun Maine Line fingering.

I also played around with a crocheted steek. This was my first time steeking so I've got a few questions:
  1. What steeking method are you all using? Does it matter in this case?
  2. When I get to the point where I do my checkerboard border stitches (is that what they're called?), do I bind off a certain number of stitches and then start them?
  3. Do I do the sleeves first, measure and then determine the length of the steek? Or is there some way to calculate how long the steeked section should be ahead of time?


5 comments:

Tracy said...

Your colors are beautiful. I can only kind of answer one question. I'll probably be doing a crochet steek, too. But as to why? I think it will be better than my sewing on a machine. I've never done it before, so your guess is as good as mine. As to your other questions, sorry I can't help you. Maybe Donna will chime in when she gets a chance.

Donna D said...

Well, I was going to post some tips about steeks, but it looks like Lorraine wants to post a tutorial about steeking tomorrow, so we'll wait for that! I like the sewing machine for steeking because it's the least bulky combined with being very secure. Ths is probably the only way I'd do a steak on a real project, even though I teach other methods in my workshop.

Hand sewing is not bulky, but it is not as secure as machine stitching.

Crochet is secure because you catch every stitch and the yarn stitcks to the yarn better than sewing thread does, but can be pretty bulky. The crochet steek is really elegant though, and it's amazing to look at the first time you cut one open.

Melissa Barton said...

Yeah, fun colors!

L'Tanya said...

I knew I had seen somwhere where you BO and then CO for steek stitches for the armhole. DUH!!! It was in Donna's book. I still may need a little more help when I get there.

Donna D said...

I'll try to post some more tutorials soon!