[Knitting] Cody's Fair Isle Vest, Finished but for finishing. :)

[kniteracy]

	Holding stitches on the arm I hate that these photos are so blurry; it's the iPhone not being a great camera again. Anyway, here's how you put the pick-up stitches on needles before cutting the armhole steek.
	Finished armhole With some 1x1 ribbing, here is the completed arm. On a human, I'd probably shape the arms a bit. In fact, I may make another with shaped arms, possibly for Cody and possibly for a ball jointed doll.
	Both arms completed Yeah, I definitely want to shape the armholes a bit next time. If they'd just come in 3-4 stitches, the whole line of the vest would be smoother.
	V-neck steek cut! With pick-up stitches on holding needles, the v-neck begins to come into focus. The patterning looks a little better but is still not perfect. I'll be more careful with this calculation next time.
	Completed except for finishing Tomorrow, I'll tack down the steek seams (after trimming them) and weave in the end. Then, you'll see a photo of Cody wearing his new vest. :)

Ravelry project page for this garment.

Comments

[almeda.livejournal.com]

I still don't really 'get' how, when you cut the steeks, the whole thing doesn't utterly unravel. I've tried steeking before, but never had any great success. Of course, I was trying to teach it to myself out of books, which for some techniques just doesn't work.

[clothsprogs.livejournal.com]

I'm fascinated by the whole idea of it, but have never tried it. I can't imagine how it doesn't all unravel either.

Teddy

Why don't steeks all unravel?

[telynor.livejournal.com]

Well, first of all, particularly with fine wool and needles (this was 4-ply Kauni on 3.25mm needles), the wool begins to felt and fuse together, just a little bit, as you knit it. Because thsi is a knitted steek and not a wound steek, the stitches are very dense, and you vary the colours on them to make sure there is as much twisting and twining as possible behind the work.

Second, while knitting does unravel sideways, it's harder to make it happen from a place that's not the end of the knitting. We've all had that experience where you pull the wrong end of a knitted garment before finishing and lots unravels, or we've dropped a stitch and seen it unravel down. What most people don't realise is that unravelling knitting sideways is actually pretty difficult.

Third, the guide needles (easiest to see in the neck steek photo above) are placed before the knitting is cut, and they're placed one stitch out from the actual patterning. In the event of a sideways ravelling disaster, the guide needles would stop it. You can also sew a straight basting seam a few stitches in to the steek to completely stop ravelling.

When the steek is cut, perhaps one set of stitches will unravel, but the rest stay tight because of all the twisting. Then, you turn the steek inward, sew it to the inside of the garment, and cut the steek again to within two stitches of the guide needle/beginning of ribbing.

I may try the next fair isle thing for Cody (which I'll do on Jamieson's 4-ply, yum)with a wound steek, where you simply wind the wool around the needles several times at the steek point, then drop it and wind again on the next round. You end up with long strings of wool that must be woven in to the back, which I think despite the extra work will look better on a garment I design and make, because as you know my sewing is crap. With this method, there are two ends to weave in for every single round of every single steek. So with this garment, which had something like 22 rounds of steek, you'd have 132 ends to weave in: 44 for each arm and 44 for the neck.

Some people advocate sewing down steek seams on a sewing machine, but I don't like the look, and it's too easy for the knitted fabric to pucker.