I showed you all a picture in process of the terrible crooked knitting of my Flora Cardigan. Well, the cardigan is done and blocked. Blocking is magic, people!! It looks so much better!! But, boy, did it shrink! I had to really tug and stretch to get it to size.
It is very lineny and drapey! Lovely fabric!
I tried something new (to me) to join the shoulders: Russian Grafting. You use a crochet hook and no working yarn. You set it up like a 3-needle bind off, with wrong sides together. Then you pull one stitch through from the front, and then one stitch from the back. It creates a rickrack appearance and is very flat. I did not find it to be any stretchier than a 3-needle bind off, which was my first concern. I will use this again!!
The other thing I did is what I did with my Big Love Cardigan. Even though this is knit bottom up and Big Love was top down, the construction is similar in terms of the shoulder positioning. I knit the fronts 2 inches longer than the back. The diagram below shows what I mean, and this link to Big Love goes into more details.
Stay tuned for another post about that wonky thing that happens with short rows on a circular sweater!!
PS regarding the shrinkage: I read up on viscose and it recommends dry cleaning store bought garments. The yarn label said to handwash in cool water. I wanted to aggressively block because of the poor appearance of the knitting, so I machine washed it on gentle in tepid water. This definitely improved the knitting, and when I laid it out I was thrilled…until I measured. It was 3 inches shorter and narrower! Stretching brought it back. Then it took days to dry!
Wow, I wouldn’t have expected a linen-viscose blend to shrink! I guess that means you didn’t put it in the dryer, which is what I’ve done with my sweaters I’ve made with Hempathy.
I’m looking forward to the wonky post.
Comment by Anne C — June 22, 2020 @ 1:07 pm
Very beautiful
Comment by Marlys — June 22, 2020 @ 2:27 pm
lovely! will you consider doing a post to explain the reasons for this shoulder modification? It looks lovely.
Comment by Linda M — June 22, 2020 @ 3:15 pm
From the picture it looks like all that work was worth it. Love the color.. Linen is a beauriful thing.
Comment by Chloe — June 23, 2020 @ 6:21 am
Good Morning,
Your summer cardigan is lovely. What a relief to be able to pull it into shape. Those are scary moments for knitters!
I’m looking forward to your insight on the longer front construction method. I’ve knit plenty of short-row, in the round, pieces. I’ve never been convinced that this is sweater construction at its best. A longer front and sleeves with differing shaping instructions for the front and the back of the sleeve cap are techniques that I’ve seen hide not hair of in recent years. In many way I feel like I was a better knitter when fit and construction was an important goal. “No seaming”, seldom sounds like “great fit” to my ears!
Comment by Cheryl — June 23, 2020 @ 7:34 am
This bind-off is used when making Orenburg Shawls
Comment by Beatrice Fendrich — July 26, 2020 @ 5:48 pm