Facing Phoenix

After hauling this particular sweater from the UK though Germany to Hungary and back, it seemed like I really should finish it. I mean, after all, I have been knitting it (or avoid it) for months now. Admittedly, not as long as I diddled around with the Viking Ship Sweater, but certainly I should not leave it till next winter, now that it is too warm to wear it.

Remember that the sleeves were finished and set it. So it was a matter of deciding on the edging. After thinking about it – I decided to avoid both I-cord and ribbing. This, obviously left me with needing an edging that would create a nice, clean edge and cover up those steeks. I also decided that I did not want color variation in the edging, so using dark grey seemed the safest bet.

What follow is the step, by insane step, method that I used.

1) find long enough needle on which I could put the 165 stitches from each side of the front plus all those around both fronts and backs of the neck

going to the dark side

going to the dark side

then there is a long time of knitting in one direction and purling back (remembering to increase on the two neck corners so that they will be mitered at the end) while taking the occasional look at the inside.

facing and bit of steek

facing and bit of steek

In the next picture, I was checking to see if the facing was long enough yet. You can also see the line of yarn on the inside that represents all the stitches that have been picked up to make the facing. I will come back and pick these up at the end to complete the bind off on the inside.

not quite long enough yet

not quite long enough yet

when the facing is wide enough, I inserted a purl row for a turning row, then knit an equal width of facing which will be turned to the inside. When it is bound off, it will enclose the steeked edge.

close up

close up

might be a bit easier to see here. The top edge is bound off, the lower edge shows the open facing completel with the purl row. That faint bit of blue is actually the cable from this particular circular needle .

finishing up the neck

finishing up the neck

I just have some sewing down to complete around the neck in those places that were “steek free” plus a few lose ends to weave in.

almost done

almost done

Like I said, a few threads and then some badly needed blocking as soon as I pull out the woolly board.

Couple of thoughts for those who don’t believe that Kauni needs to be knit at 24/10 cm. I knit this at a much firmer gauge since I had no desire for a garment that was forever around. The result of taking out almost 20 cm? It is firm, it is heavy. and the hand is not as nice as my non-rainbow cardigan. A couple of projects that are in the queue are going to be put back to a lighter gauge as they are not outer, outerwear.

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3 Responses to Facing Phoenix

  1. Kathryn says:

    At that gauge however it should last you practically forever so I hope you absolutely love it when it is finished!

  2. Linda M says:

    Wow, I learn so much when you write about finishing!

  3. Melinda says:

    Wow! Fabulous. And don’t you just love being done?

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