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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Work In Progress Wednesday v.11

Welcome to the 11th (!) installment of Work In Progress Wednesday, where every week crafters from around the world, working in different mediums, make more progress on their projects than me!  Exciting times. 

I really did hope to have the sweater finished this week, honest.  But there was no knitting over the weekend.  And very little during lunch and after work.  And that combination doesn't make for much week to week progress.  Here's the thing with Mr. Right's Avast... This is a super cool cardigan with almost no seaming (yay!).  What it does have is hemmed pieces.  Both sleeve cuffs are hemmed.  The waistband is hemmed.  The collar is hemmed.  The bands on the left and right front of the sweater are hemmed.  It's hem city, people. 

But, as I mentioned before, I learned a new skill with this sweater -- the knitted hem.  Instead of sewing the hems, you actually knit them together as you go.  It's incredibly cool, and the finish looks super-professional.  The other upside is that once you're done knitting, there's almost no finishing work to be done (all I'll have to do is seam the sleeves and add the zipper).  Here's a close-up of the inside of the collar...



That little line of bumps there is all you can see of the hem.  Not bad, eh?

The trade off is that you have one row that takes a good 20-30 minutes to knit together.  Kind of a drag, but still much faster than hemming for someone like me, with my ham-fisted sewing skills.  Anyway, I'm so excited (yes, I am a geek) about it, I'm planning a knitted hem tutorial for this weekend.  Hopefully, other folks will find it useful, too.

And, here's one of the front bands in all its finished glory...

Pretty cool, if I do say so myself.  And Mr. Right fairly happy about it, as well.

Now comes the part where I promise that next week, you'll be looking at a finished sweater (save the zipper which I can't order until I finish the bottom hem and know the exact length).  And maybe the beginning of something else.  But I'm not dumb enough to promise that...


9 comments:

  1. The sweater does look really nice.

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  2. I love the look of the knitted hems. They are so neat. The finished garment is going to look really polished.

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  3. Wow, Paula, the hems look amazing! Very professional. Despite taking longer, I'm sure it's a relief to not have to worry about it at the end. Weaving in ends and sewing hems is such a bummer when you just want the project to be done.

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  4. Nice work! It is going to look very professionsal. I'll look forward to seeing it finished.

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  5. That looks fantastic, your stitches look so neat! Knitted hems are like magic. Anything which results in minimal finishing is a definite win for me!

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  6. Denise CraftyCripple & Affiknitty - Thanks! I'm really pleased with them.

    Tami - I know, right? Finishing is totally my nemesis.

    elephantJuice - The neat rows of stitches make me unreasonably happy. :)

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  7. I love the stitching on this sweater and the color is so pretty : )

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  8. Hi there! I found your blog on ravelry- what a great space! I love a knitted hem- seaming can be such a drag!

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  9. love the hem. Would like to see a tutorial. I hate finishing up. That is one of my favorite phrases (right up there with "let me finish this row first")..."all I lack is finishing up."

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