Hardangervidda Steeks
November 14th, 2004 at 8:12 pm (hardangervidda)
I have made stellar progress on Hardangervidda. I present to you a photo record of "How I steeked an armhole on Hardangervidda and survived":
"A" points to the outline around the steek marked with some pearl cotton. It’s a 4 stitch wide steek. The "B" points to the satin ribbon I used to mark the center of the steek. I wanted it clearly marked where I was going to sew and then cut. Measure 12 times, sew twice, cut once.
As I was machine stitching I realized it wasn’t really the cutting that was the big deal. It was the sewing those eensy teensy tiny stitches with the machine. There was no way I was going to try and rip those out after putting them in.
The view from the inside of the sweater from top to bottom: Pearl Cotton delineating steek area, two lines of tiny machine stitches, ribbon marking the center, and so on.
Just starting to cut…
And all finished cutting the steek.
I wanted to make sure it was going to fit. After doing a three needle bind off on the shoulders, I had Mike try it on:
He’s smiling! Does that mean he likes it, or he’s just humoring his wife? I also wanted to check to make sure the sleeves were going to work:
I did a quick backstitch basting of the sleeve in and WOW. Talk about the perfect length on those sleeves. I was a bit concerned that the depth of the armhole wasn’t quite big enough, so I had him hold his arm out:
He’s so tolerant :) By this time there was no way he’d stay still for any more pictures. I managed to get both sleeves really sewn in (ripped out the basting on the first one. I had the facing showing on the outside a bit, so I moved where I was sewing it) and have picked up stitches for the neck. There was one more steek I sewed & cut. That’s the scary one that is only 3 stitches wide down the center front. After knitting some facings, there will be a zipper there. I got it sewn & cut, no problems.
I had never backstitched a sleeve in before. It was much easier than I thought it should be. One thing I was concerned about is I was focusing on where the stitches were catching the sleeve so that the facing didn’t show. I was using my machine stitches on the steek to keep the stitches in the body a consistent depth. However, it was difficult to tell exactly where the stitching was catching on the body. It came out pretty straight, but not perfectly straight. It will pass the galloping horse test though, so I’m not redoing them. Any hints/advice on how to do this better in the future?
Left to do:
- Knit collar
- Knit facings
- Find zipper close to the correct length & color
- Put in zipper
- Weave in ends (yes, those are yarn ends dangling down from his wrist) and whip stitch sleeve facings in
- Celebrate!
Joann said,
November 15th, 2004 at 5:47 am
Wow - see what happens when I don’t look at your blog for a day?! H. looks fantastic - and well worth all your hard efforts! Will Mike model it for us at Borders when it’s done? hee hee….
Jo
swatchy said,
November 15th, 2004 at 6:41 am
Whoo hooo, noce job!
jill said,
November 15th, 2004 at 8:17 am
Its GORGEOUS! Mike is so lucky! Congratulations, its a beautiful baby sweater you have birthed!
Mandella said,
November 15th, 2004 at 2:24 pm
Great progress Nancy. I’m really looking forward to seeing the completed, 2-sleeved version.
I wish my DH would even contemplate wearing a sweater I’d made with love and care for him, but he won’t, so it’s no use fretting about it.
Wanda said,
November 16th, 2004 at 9:11 am
Harderangervidda is beautiful, Nancy! Can’t wait to see it all completed. I’m so impressed by your knitting talent and yes, your persistence, in getting that sweater right!