Coming down the home stretch (and a few concerns about my blocking)
Well, I'm about 1/3 of the way done with Sleeve #2 for Nerdy Hubby's sweater...I finished the front and back, put them together at the shoulders (using the beloved 3-needle bind-off), and popped the "poncho" over Hubby's head. The body barely made it past his waist! But, never fear, the yarn doesn't have a lot of twist, and we use Eucalan to soften our woollies, so I wasn't deterred...I could block this puppy into submission.I soaked/spun the poncho/sweater with 2 capsful of Eucalan, and then pinned it to the blocking board (photos to come...no camera at high-speed internet central...aka work), stretching it a bit to make it the required 27" long. Not too bad...didn't take much effort...
I let it dry, then unpinned...I think it lost .75" when I took the pins out of the sweater.
So, here's my thought (irrational rationalization coming...warning! warning!): I didn't leave much dampness in the sweater after I soaked it in the Eucalan...I let the washer spin most of it out...if it had been really wet, the project would have stretched out and stayed that way...so I'm going to do another in-the-sink-with-no-spin-cycle soak/block. What do you think? Am I simply fooling myself?
I did end up adding another 1-2" to the first almost-finished sleeve, so I was glad I hadn't bound off on that one. Now I'm striving to keep the second sleeve similar to the first. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...
Once I finish this sleeve, I'm going to block the sleeves to match the width given in the schematic, then worry about the length. I'm confident they're long enough, but I don't want to block them so aggressively that they become overly long. Eek! That wouldn't sit well at all.
Because it's a simple drop-shoulder design, there aren't any armholes to fit with the sleeves...just two rectangles for the front and back, and the sleeves. I'm not very good at sewing fitted sleeves into shaped armholes, so I'm thankful for small favors on this project!
Tune in later this week (I hope) for photos of the sweater in progress...
posted by Nerdy Knitter @ 3:12 PM
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