My pink Elizabeth Zimmermann Cardigan

An end to a long labour.

This project is finally finished. Which is a minor miracle, seeing how long it took me.

Yarn	Mirasol Qina
Needles	5 mm
Pattern	Elizabeth Zimmermann's Green Sweater
from	Schoolhouse Press

 
I just looked back at previous blog posts about this cardigan and I am flabbergasted to find that it is the project I mentioned the most: in a massive five posts!

Not that you would want to look at them but just to show that I'm not exaggerating:

My first steeks!
Steek update
An inspirational pattern (all about The Green Sweater story!)
Something has to be done
My crafty state of play

I learned a lot from this project (also see my Ravelry project page).  I was aware that this incorporates quite a few things that were new to me like steeking, gauntlet cuffs, dolman sleeve shaping or the square neckline band. Oh, and phony seams!

It was huge fun to do these things, one at a time.

I learned that it's a good idea to do the phony seams before turning the hem up: ladder the rows of your "seam" stitch right back down to the bottom stitch (careful to keep the bottom stitch or it gets very fiddly!) and hook them back up with a crochet hook: pull through the two strands from the bottom two rows, then one strand from the third, and carry on like this (2, 1, 2, 1...).  It gives a very nicely defined pseudo seam up the sides!

If you do the hem first you may find that you sewed up the stitch you're meant to be laddering, which is precisly what I did. Ahem.

Steeks are not scary.  Amazing as it is: as long as you machine stitch at least a couple of lines either side of where you'll cut, you're not going to run into any problems of cut ends unravelling.  I have not tried crocheting instead of machine stitching.

What hasn't turned out so well:

The body of this cardigan is way too short.  It looks a bit ridiculous on me to be honest.  An unhappy discovery.  I suppose I could try to lengthen this but there is another problem: I disovered only now after the jacket had been hanging up for some time that the yarn is too heavy for this pattern.  What used to be quite a reticent square neckline to start with is getting bigger and bigger.  The shoulders threaten so slip off the hanger and I will definitely store this folded instead.

The applied i-cord (are you meant to do the button loops this way? I couldn't quite figure it out from the pattern) is a bit bulky although it stabilises the centre front edge very well.  Unfortunately it does not hide the gaping gaps in said centre opening because I think that I didn't get the measurement across my boobs right.

If I wear this cardigan unbottoned then that won't show up.

The sleeves turned out a little long (I thought I'd tried it on and determined the right length? But this could be down to the 'getting longer' in the shoulders problem that I mentioned above).  That's just about okay.

I may have to think of sewing in a staying band under the shoulders, that might improve things a touch.  So grafting the shoulders may not be such a good idea: seams would have made this more rigid.

In summary: I loved the techniques involved, I really enjoyed making this (even though it took so long), I may wear this every so often (I hope) but all in all I am thinking of making this again to incorporate what I learned.  Next time in a yarn that won't be too heavy to sit and drape lots better, and I would lengthen the body by about 2-3 inches.

The pattern mentions a variation of slimmer sleeves: that sounds very intriguing and I think I would go with that.

I am thinking of Jamieson's Shetland wool: there is a 2 ply which is called a jumper weight, there are some really lovely colours!  Keeping my stash in mind, I won't be buying any more wool any time soon though...

.

Steek update

Carrying on from my earlier blog entry about steeking the Elizabeth Zimmermann cardigan, here are a couple of photos of the steeks I didn't show before.

This is the steek of the right sleeve (on the right as worn).  I had sewn along the centre of the six steek stitches with my sewing machine, i.e. on top of steek stitch number three and stitch number four.  I am not sure how easy this is to see in the photo,  The loose threads at the bottom may be the most visible bit.

Again, I put in four sewn lines keeping the line to be cut in the centre - these are about half a knitted stitch's width apart.  The knitting needle sits at shoulder height, the bottom of the photo shows the cast on steek stitches - these will get folded inside and sewn down by hand and become facings.

Cutting the garment open between the middle two sewn lines:

I then grafted the shoulder stitches closed and began to pick up stitches for the dolman sleeves from a column of knitted stitched three stitches in, i.e. not inside the area of the steek stitches but the last 'proper' stitch either side (the three steek stitches need to remain as they are so they can be folded inwards).  I then knitted these picked up stitches off together with the live stitches kept on waste yarn at the bottom of the armhole to make the second sleeve.

I also machine sewed the four stitch lines down the centre of the cardigan for the front opening but I haven't cut this open yet.  I still have to knit the neck facing but will have to cut the front opening first to ensure I pick up stitches in the correct place and also so that the neck band will look okay.

Wave crest pattern Cardie

This is not finished yet, and therefore my first blog on a work in progress, or WIP.

I was going to only blog about completed projects but could not resist it - I am really happy with the pattern (from a German knitting magazine called 'Verena', the Winter 2009 edition, model 10), the wave pattern is lovely! I am managing to get a fairly smooth fabric too, I must be putting the right amount of tension on the thread when I carry it at the back.

I must say though that I am heavily adapting the cardigan. I am using six colours: three greys and two pinks with aubergine as the third colour. The magazine uses four, one of them a very bright turquoise. I do like this colour combination but I was looking for a pattern to use for my six colours, the yarn came first!  I am really pleased with this:

My adaptation involves four plain knitted rows between each of the three colour work patterns rows instead of two as per the pattern. Much easier to knit (and quicker) and it makes the finished article look less busy, not as fussy! I prefer that.

I started following the pattern instruction, casting on the back piece. Then I started changing things by using a hollow hem as for the black Fern tank top - it is very useful if you might need an elastic and you can use one even if you don't strictly need it, just to weigh the hem down. I like how these hems look: the purl row at the hem is very nice and neat. I love the simpleness of it. And it doesn't curl up as much as plain stocking stitch does (the hem still stubbornly turns up though, I need to block this soon, it's driving me crazy. I already hang it up by the hem and hope that the increasing weight will straighten this out but that hasn't happened just yet).

Then I started the colour work. The first row, a right side knitted row, was absolutely fine: three stitches in mid grey, three stitches in aubergine. Easy. Then I turned the work to do the purl row: one grey, one aubergine, two grey, two aubergine and so on... Oh-oh! Hang on, where was I? I only got terribly mixed up about what, when, where... You just can't see what you are doing on a wrong side, those threads you carry at the back tend to block the view!

I didn't even finish the row because I got seriously fed up and decided that I'd lose the will to live before I ever finished the project. So I knitted back, cast on one of the front pieces on the same circular needle (a very loud cheer for circ needles!), knitted that to the same point in the pattern (I had to re-feed it to the correct place on the needle in the process), cast on the second front piece (managing to get the placement right, wahey!), knitted that up to the same row and then with all three pieces (in the correct orientation) still on the circular needle, I just carried on knitting round as if it was all one piece - going round and round.  So much easier, what a huge relief!

What I also did once I finished the hemming part of each front, was to cast on six stitches each (twelve stitches at centre front). I want to use the steek technique to make this cardigan: I will use a sewing machine to put a double seam each down the middle and then cut through the fabric between those stitch lines. Scary stuff! Each of the six stitches will then turn into an inner facing.

That's the plan anyway, wish me luck.

I'm looking forward to finding out how I'll do, I've never used steeks before.