Shelter Sweaters & Garter Carriage Cams

Here are some sweaters for the Women's Shelter. I always tell them to let me know what they need, & they said some bigger children's sweater would be much appreciated, if possible. These sweater are size 14, 12, & 10. I am going to be making some more of them in these sizes. Hopefully the bigger kids will like them. My experience with the older kids is that they don't like hand made clothing. 

I have forgiven myself for buying all the yarn. But......I have renewed my resolution to reduce my stash again this year, as I did last. 

While using my Garter Carriage I ran over the last of my GC one stitch cams on the left hand side. I am always so careful, or try to be anyway, but it is completely gone now. I haven't run one over for several years. Anyway, I decided to try to convert a 2 sts cam to a 1 sts cam. I took my fingernail clippers & VERY CAREFULLY used it to clip the little bar at the top of the cam in half, in the middle.  Then, I used the clippers to again, VERY CAREFULLY clip off the right hand side of the bar. I had to clip it again, closer to the base of the cam, but it does seem to be working. I have several 2 sts cams so maybe this will work out. I wanted to take a picture of it but it is soooo small that I couldn't get a good one. 

Years ago I bought a spare motherboard for my 965i. That was truly thinking ahead as the motherboard went out today & I had to replace it with the new board. I am going to talk to Shawn Dolan @ Knit & Sew to see if he can repair the old one. I am keeping my fingers crossed that he can.  

Cut & Sew Instructions

1. Here on the left you can see where I have drawn my neckline. You can see the yarn tags at the first & last neck stitches. I did not have a big enough template so I printed out a template from the 'KnitWare' program. (You can do that for any size neck if you have the program. I will describe that in another post.)

2.  I marked the neckline with washable marker in a contrasting color. 

3. Then I sewed 2 rows of zig zag stitching on the marked line. I was very careful to not pull or stretch the neckline while I was sewing it. You can put some tissue paper or embroidery backing behind the neck if you want to. I don't do that anymore as I have learned to sew without stretching the fabric

.4.  Before you cut, be sure to eyeball the neck to make sure it is even on both sides. You want them to match as closely as possible. You do not want one side higher or deeper than the other side. I used to measure them before I cut, & that might be a good idea for the first couple that you do. Then, with a pair of sharp scissors I carefully cut just outside the marked line. 

5. Here is the neckband for the sweater, & the sweater hanging on my machine. I knitted the neckband separately, with waste yarn on either side. After I cut out my neck I joined one shoulder, & rehung the sweater, just under the rows of stitching, on the machine with the right side facing me, easing in any fullness.

 6. Then, I brought all the needles out to holding position. I rehung one neckband side into the hooks on the machine, closed all the latches & pulled the stitches through the neckline.

 7. Then I brought the needles out to holding position again, making sure that the cut edge of the neckline was underneath the needles. 

8. Rehang the other side of the neckband & push the stitches behind the latches. When I am binding off a crew neck I will bind off over 2 gate pegs, but since this is a scoop neck you can just bind off normally, making sure that you don't drop any stitches while doing that. You should wind up with an attractive neckline that is even all the way around the neck. 

   

Here is the finished cut & sew neckline. The picture on the left is the knit side & the picture on the right is the purl side. The neck looks just as good on the purl side as it does on the knit side. This neck came out perfectly shaped & looks great. Now I need to join the sleeves & make up. 



Afghans for Afghans

Here is a true Hero of the A4A program, Linda Graves. You can read her story Here

As you can see, from the condition of my den, that I have fallen off the wagon. I did get a good buy on the yarn.(!!) but that is not an issue here. I really am trying to be good. I am somewhat disappointed with myself, but after I committed to buying it, there just wasn't any way out. I have learned this about myself, if I can resist the temptation when I get the first impulse to buy, I am usually okay. I know maybe in a day or two I will be ready, but I am NOT ready to laugh at this just yet. 


My g'son says I am a yarn hoarder. It is an addiction, for me. A compulsive addiction to own as many beautiful cones of yarn as I can. I'm sure all machine knitters that have a large stash are compulsive too, but I have so much. My only saving grace is that I knit at least 2 hours every day but Sunday, so I am using it, not just collecting. 


I get a lot of hits for 'cut & sew' necks. I am going to consolidate my posts on C&S & re-post them in one long post. I think it will be easier for readers to understand it, if it is all just one post. 

Better get busy, I have some knitting to do!!