The Gift of Knitting - Gallery Sweater

Finished ObjectsMachine KnittingMachine Knitting Chall...

Feb 7

Written By

Happy Sunday!

Each handmade project is like a notebook for me where my memories, experiences, failures and successes are recorded. I can look at a piece and distinctly remember where I got the yarn, how the pattern and yarn were "married", the place where it was made... Gallery Sweater will definitely stay with me for a long time and every time I look at its stitches, memories of sunny late afternoons filled with swatching, yarn blend experiments, with the sound of the carriage on the needle bed will come up...

The sweater is really simple, there are no fancy elaborate details. Just plain reverse stockinette with a basic classic shaping. The yarn plays the main role - the delicious blend of laceweight hand dyed alpaca/silk and merino wool asked for something simple and basic to bring the best out of fiber.

I was thinking of adding some texture to it, but it wouldn't make any visual difference - it would get lost in variegated colors. The only textural effect is the difference between stockinette hem and reverse stockinette body.

The pieces were made separately on the knitting machine, wet blocked and then hand seamed together with the mattress stitch. I do find this kind of seaming tricky on the reverse stockinette - it is not always clear where you are supposed to insert a tapestry needle, but it has its own advantages - even if your pieces are not perfectly aligned (it happened to me on both sides), this "mismatch" is practically invisible!

The neckline was hand trimmed with applied i-cord and I really love how simple and unobtrusive it is. I fiddled a little bit with grafting i-cord ends, I definitely need to practice it more!

Sleeve cuffs didn't have any trimming and the edge naturally curves creating a simple textured detail. This is teh only detail that stands out against a simple background.

When you are knitting with two strands of yarn of different colors, you never know how the colors will behave. It's a part of the fun and it makes each project unique. In this sweater it is obvious on the sleeves - in some places yarn created stripes and in others - patches of colors that create mosaic blurred effect.