From left to right: beginnings of the second sleeve, first sleeve, front of sweater, back of sweater. The reason the edges are wavy is because it was knitted in stockinette, which tends to curl under. To stop it from curling under, you're supposed to "block" it, which means soaking it in water and then pinning it into the shape you want it to stay in. The process sort of scares me a little, since I don't want to ruin all my hard work by just dumping it in the bathtub, so I'm not sure if I'm actually going to do it. The pattern I'm using doesn't say anything about blocking, so I don't think I'll bother. When I sew it up it'll stay in place anyway.
Earlier this week, I took a little break from working on that in order to make this fingerless glove! I'm really proud of it and I love that it turned out the way I wanted it to.
Unfortunately, I only have this one glove done. It wasn't very hard to make, so I might have enough time to finish the second one before the TED Talk. This was mostly a side project, anyway, to practice knitting in the round. Which I love. It seems complicated and overwhelming at first, but once you get the hang of it it's just like knitting on regular needles. I actually prefer this when it comes to gloves, since you don't have to sew it up at the end, and sewing is really hard. I'm getting better at it though!
Making this required quite a bit of sewing in order to close the holes that were at the top and bottom and to get the leaf attached.
This was actually more of a side project than the gloves. It also used double pointed needles, and I learned something called i-cord to make the stem. It was really fun to make and it's so cute! I'm worried that the leaf is going to fall off since I'm not very good at sewing, so I'll probably get some help from my mom to get it more secure. Right now my idea of sewing is taking the thread and just looping it around a lot until it seems like it won't come unraveled too easily. I'll have to look up how sewing actually works.
Until then, I'll keep knitting!
As a tip for blocking, you don't need to throw it into a bathtub. You can take a little squirt bottle and spray the water on. As a warning, you can only block your sweater once. I guess it's like stretching skinny jeans. For sweaters I guess you could just wear it, but for flatter things it's best to pin it. Also when you do circles that you need to close, you don't have to sew it. Instead of binding off, you can cut a long end, and pull it through the stitches (some patterns write that in instead of binding off and sewing).
ReplyDeleteNice nail polish.
So I'd get it wet and then wear it until it's dry? Sounds like a fun time. And thanks for the tip about circles! (Also the compliment about my nail polish. I'm like 80% sure that's not sarcasm.)
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ReplyDeletewow Jessica that looks really professional actually I think. I'm not a knitting expert so it might actually look bad but to me it looks great! That glove looks like a sweater I used to have that I bought at the store, the stitching I mean. Its really even and has like a pattern and everything! I don't really understand how knitting works that's crazy that you can do it though.
ReplyDeleteI know nothing about knitting. That being said, your sweater/apple/glove look AWESOME. I really like the apple, did you have to sew it around a cotton ball? The fingerless glove looks way better than the ones you posted pictures of before, so congrats on the improvement. I'm curious about what angle you will come from with your TED Talk, maybe the importance of slow, steady, manual labor? There's something to be said for tasks that can't be done with a computer. I really like your project and look forward to seeing the sweater finished.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Are these things that you actually, legitimately, plan on wearing? Would the gloves actually keep your hands warm? Because if so, that's really cool, and you never have to worry about losing gloves because you can make a bunch. (Well, I guess not really.) If not... well, it's still cool, I guess. It's definitely cooler if you can use your finished product.
ReplyDeleteWow Jessica! It seems to me that you have made a lot of progress! I certainly cannot knit a sweater or gloves or apples! (By the way, I think your apple is really cute!) I think it's cool that you are making other products besides just your final sweater because it shows that once you know the basics, you can make practically anything! Also, it helps you to have a well-rounded knitting background (haha because you're knitting in the round...get it?)Overall, great job and I hope you continue to knit in the future because I think you will be able to make some pretty cool things!
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