KAL - The Grand Finale

Blogger has been playing ‘silly buggers’ again…so what we have here is three updates in one. (I know the Blogger IT people are very good and do work hard to fix problems, so I'm not going to moan about that).

Thursday’s Post – when things were progressing nicely and all was good in the world.

I've reached the faffy stage of the wrap over! I'm surprised at just how fast it has knitted up, especially as I have been taking my time (read: "slacking off to make socks"). Last night I finished the second sleeve, which took me to the first stage of sewing up. This was sewing the shoulder seams together. Easy! and not too much sewing.

I used some navy 4ply for this as I remembered the warnings I've read on the 'Angel Yarns' Knitting Forum - that "Twilleys Freedom Spirit" is a dreadful yarn for sewing up with. It's not strong enough and splits too easily.

Below is a close up of the real faffy bit - picking up stitches from sides (between the cast on edge and beginning of the sloping) to make a ribbed border. I think I've done quite a neat job - certainly an improvement on my early efforts of picking up stitches to knit collars. You could always see the holes between the main body of the piece and the additional trim/collar/border.It's still not perfect.

The pattern's instructions were to pick up 37 stitches for each of the two fronts' borders. For one side I picked up 35, for the other side I picked up 41. I never manage to get the right number (except on the gussets of socks).

It's probably just practice.

And last of all, here's a picture of the two sleeves (just to prove that I have finished two sleeves) along with the first tie I started last night. The instructions for this tie seem to very straight forward as it has to be knit until it's long to be placed as edged around the whole 'inside edge' - i.e. around the neck and down the sloping of both fronts.

This is beautiful wool to knit with. The finished pieces are soft and the striping effect is gorgeous. I do find it difficult to use on bamboo or wooden needles (no matter how well polished they are) as it catches on any imperfection in the surface, so I prefer to use metal needles. The wool was even catching on a scabbed over cut on my finger last night.

Friday’s Update – wherein everything seems to go horribly wrong but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I progressed to sewing up the right tie last night (see below). Does anyone notice anything wrong with this?

Well, it's the RIGHT tie and I was well aware of that. However, I set about blindly following the instructions... "Continue in rib until Band, when slightly stretched, fits up the left front slope, from cast off edge of Border to shoulder seam, across back neck and down..."

It says "LEFT" so that's where I put it. Grrrrrr!!

And the instructions continue...

"...across back neck and down left front slope to cast off edge of border, sewing in place as you go along..."

The first 'left' is a typo. It should say 'right'. I really wanted to kick myself for not noticing it sooner. So now it looked like the wrap over would fasten on the right hand side. I tried to unpick what I had already sewed but it began to pull at the wool. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to fix it so I decided to leave it. “Hopefully my Mam won't mind,” I thought but I was annoyed.

The BF, at first didn’t understand why it was a problem – until I demonstrated with the help of dressing gowns.

However, I have been mulling this problem over since then. Maybe I could just cut the tie bit off and continue knitting up the other side? It might work actually. Then the bit I've cut off I could use as the proper left tie, in the right place. I just need to find a way of neatly fastening up the bit I've cut off. So the situation is not altogether lost. Typing this update really helped me to think about how I can fix it. It was all just too infuriating last night.

The Grand Finale

It’s finished. I’m made up and more importantly – it’s made up! I didn’t slack off at all during the sewing up. My plan for fixing the left tie fiasco worked like a treat too. All I needed to do was be calm and mull it over.

Additional result: two balls of wool left over. I think I’ll give the multi-directional scarf a bash.