Just a Little Off on the Sides

After all the angst about using scissors on Dakota Dreams, The Great Sweater Reduction of '08 went very well yesterday. The big Wheat motifs were centered in a way that they met at the seam perfectly- pure luck that. Outside of the design looking a bit truncated, you don't notice the seam at all.

I had every reason to be glad that I knit these sleeves tandem (both at the same time, with steeks, then cut, seamed and sewn in place) rather than picking up the stitches at the armhole and working down, in the traditional manner. I was able to detatch the sleeve from the cut-away portion easily, and I was able to make the opening smaller to fit the new armhole just by resewing the seam. I decided not to cut away the excess fabric in the new seam allowance because it wasn't all that bulky.

It wasn't too difficult to sew the sleeves in place, though it seemed a lot more fiddly than the side seams.

I tried the sweater on, was pleased (though it would look better if I shortened about 6"- not going to do that- One major redo per sweater, that's my motto), but the neckline was still way too big.

So I picked up stitches on the neck band (picking up sts on a black neckline with fine black yarn, and a size 1 needle- a bugger no matter how you look at it). I'm nearly done with the new ribbing (one color), and will bind off today. There's no need to reblock the entire sweater, I should be able to get by with just steam blocking the new seams. If the neckband needs washing (so the yarn blooms), I'll just wet that part down and let it dry.

l'll have The Big Reveal, and modeling pics later today or tomorrow.