More Lessons Learned

I just wanted to share a sunset with you. This is looking to the west from our front porch area last night. Perhaps it's not the best picture, but I'm still learning.

Well, I completed that sleeve last night. Finally! And then I laid it out on the floor to see how it would all look once put together. The sleeves do look short, but the directions said 18 inches and depending on where the shoulders actually lay, 18 inches should be fine. We will see.

As you can see from the picture above, I have done the seam on one shoulder using the directions from "Knitting in Plain English". They were very easy to follow and I am sure that once I do more seams they will look even more finished.

The next thing I did was to do the collar, which according to the directions in the book for the pattern, I was to pick up and knit, in garter stitch, 8 rows.

Here is what I did. The pattern said I should have a total of 82 stitches, 24 were on hold for the back, 18 on hold for the front. I ended up with 9 on each side of the back, making 42 and then 13 on each side of the front, making a total of 86. I wanted the stitches to be evenly placed, so we'll see if 4 more stitches will make that much of a difference.

Then with the size #7 needles, I did 7 rows of garter stitch. For the 8th row, I was worried about my bind off for the collar, so I switched to the size #9 needles and did row 8 with those and the bind off. For the bind off, using a suggestion from "Knitting in Plain English", I did a K1, P1 bind off in the hopes that the edge will lay flat and not roll either way.

What I learned this morning was: 1) Make sure you are using the right end of the skein before you get too far with picking up stitches. 2) I also have decided that I do not like working flat in stockinette stitch. I think the purling has alot to do with the pain in my wrists.

Well, today is Friday and it is my busiest day of the week. I need to get my non-knitting part of my day started and finished before I can get back to finishing up the seams and trying on the sweater.

Until next time!

(PS for some reason the returns are not showing up in this post and I am sorry if it is hard to read)