Tuesday, January 8, 2013

No, no, no

I was very excited about finishing my fairisle jersey this morning. The multicolour yoke looks good. The neck is neat. But, when I came to the underarms, things fell apart. I grafted the 11 stitches as per instructions, but there are ugly gaping holes on each side of the graft!! There must be some trick to this that I don't know. This just won't do for a knitting competition. Oh dear me. I haven't yet decided what to do.

10 comments:

  1. Oh, that's SO frustrating. I'm sure your brain cell 3 will come up with the answer and I hope that won't be to start again!!

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  2. Hi Jane, your sweater looks great. I would thread a large needle with matching wool and pull the stitches together, using a stitch that looks like a knitted stitch, up through one side, down through the other side... do you know what I mean? I think it will be fine and nearly invisible.

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  3. Thanks Frivole. I did do that on the other side. It looks ok, ordinarily I'm sure it would be fine, but for a competition? I'm still wondering where I went wrong and what I should have done?

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  4. Oh No! I presume you did nothing wrong, rather it was just the fate of the graft this time. Best of luck in the competition, as this sweater really does look great!

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  5. I don't know much about knitting, but that is a pretty pattern.

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  6. I often find when knitting that there should be many more stitches added than what a pattern calls for. For example when adding a thumb to a mitten it will call for three, but I add six and then knit two together on the next row for the appropriate amount of stitches because if I don't, I end up with gaps like you did with your sweater. Is there any way you can take the sleeve off and begin again with the grafting? If not I think your only hope is to hand graft if very carefully. If you follow your current stitches with another strand of wool and pull them a bit tighter it should all pull together.

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  7. I've never finished a sweater, but I have run into that problem when knitting socks. I read about a trick where you knit down into the row below to close the gap. I haven't actually tried it, but it seems like it would work.

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  8. Thanks for all the suggestions and comments. I'm going to have to make a plan of action. I did contemplate just starting over, but that's probably not necessary!

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  9. Jane, I think it can be easily done to have loose stitches at the ends of a stitch holder - did you have one there? You have to be very careful to keep the knitting really snug around that area so that there are no gaps afterwards. I've done it before too! Sometimes I will pick an extra stitch into that space when I'm grafting.

    I'm sure you don't want to start over!

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    Replies
    1. You're right, the stitches each side of the stitches left on the holder were too loose. I think I'll have to bite the bullet and go back to that part and do it correctly, watching out for the danger points. Good idea to pick up an extra stitch too. I'll graft it before I knit all that yoke again!!

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