Pearl Gets A Collar

Slowly but surely I've been working my way through finishing the Pearl Buck Swing Jacket. Unusually enough for me, I've been proceeding through each part of the finishing work slowly and with care. First I connected the yoke to the back piece. I counted rows and stitches across and figured out exactly what ratio I needed to have to create a smooth seam and for the yoke to stretch across the back without bunching.

After that, I had to rest for a bit. All that thinking hard about a seam takes a lot out of a girl.

Then it was time to sew the fronts and sides. Fortunately, the math for connecting the yoke to the back worked equally well for connecting the yoke to the tops of the fronts. Then, I very carefully mattress stitched the side seams together. This seaming experience did teach me a lesson. Normally, I'll mattress stitch and pick up two bars on each side. For this sweater, I picked up only one stitch at a time on each side. This helped to minimize any bunching and the seam feels a bit more flexible to me. It also took twice as long.

But I haven't been in much of a hurry on this project. This jacket, in the yarn I am making it in, is really meant for spring and fall. With the bracelet length sleeves (probably a bit shorter on me) it won't be wearable over my normal winter turtlenecks with long sleeves. Short sleeve shirts and tank tops are going to work better. While we did have brief taste of spring last weekend, it's been pretty chilly here in Chicago -- I even saw snow flurries today out my window. So I've been taking it easy with Pearl, which has let me focus on the finishing details. I don't think I'm a sloppy finisher, but I do think that sometimes my desire to have a finished garment overwhelms my willingness to pay attention to small details.

After the fronts were attatched and side seams in place, I picked up the stitches for the collar and got that taken care of. Collars really add structure to a sweater and help me understand how the garment is going to look when finished. I find it useful to take pictures at this juncture so that I can see how the garment is going to look on me.

Pearl from the Front

This isn't the best angle (apparently my photographer has been studying the IK photographic style a bit too much) but the fronts hang evenly and the collar sits correctly. The fronts don't roll at the edge as much as I would have expected them to, but they do roll a bit. There may be grosgrain ribbon in my future to help stabilize that edge.

Pearl from the Back

The collar looks terrible here (I didn't realize that it wasn't standing up correctly when the picture was taken and my photographer claims "I figured it was supposed to be that way" which I don't know whether to take as good or bad), so you'll have to trust me that it doesn't do that all the time. I'm pleased that the yoke doesn't look too stretched out in the vertical axis (I was worried that the weight of the back would cause it to sag in a not so good way). I'm not quite sure yet what I am going to do about the pleated back panel. I can't tell if it's misbehaving as a result of my choice of a different yarn with a much different texture and drape (the suggested Matchmaker is a much springier/squishier yarn with a little heavier feel to it) or if it's just one of those little design things that the photostylists for the magazine found a way to make look much better when they were taking pictures. I think that it may need to be tacked down in a few strategic places to make it lie correctly. Either that or I need to block the bejeezus out of it. But I suspect the tacking is the only way to get consistant behavior.

All that remains now is to seem up the sleeves and set them in. I'm not going to do anything to the pleat in back until I get that taken care of. It's been my experience that the sleeves can have an incredible structural impact on the final form of the garment, and it's always a good idea to have the entire garment together and see how it works before making any other modifications.

Will I have a new sweater on Monday? Hard to know. All of Saturday will be devoted to a trip to Marengo to do some Indigo dyeing, check out the Socks that Rock and buy a carrying back for my wheel, so I'm not sure how much acutal knitting will get done.