Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Embellish the Neckline a Little

Today I am going to talk about embellishing the neckline a little bit. This is really an easy addition to your pullover, & VERY simple + adds a little pizazz to the look.
 
 
This is a very easy pullover with grafted neckline & sleeves. I don't have it sewn up yet but will finish it up today. It is for the Clothing Bank here in town. One of the ladies that volunteers there said there is a great need for children's jackets & sweaters & hats so I decided to make them some. I also thought that this would be a good time to say a little about necklines.
 
 There are lots of things that you can do to spice up the neckline. Mary Anne Oger(I hope I spelled that right) has a great book out called the "Necks Best Thing". She has lots of great necklines for the MKer.
 
 
This picture is of the neckline. It isn't as easy to see as I had hoped it would be. There is a ridge around the neck that makes it stand out some as opposed to the plain neckline. To make this neckline you need to:
 
1.Rehang the neckline stitches with the right side of the knit  facing you on the KM.
 
2. Knit one row straight across with the main bed carriage.
 
3.After that, transfer your stitches for the rib that you are using.
 
4. Knit the rib(this is the grafted neckband).
 
5. After the rib is knitted you want to take the neckline off with the garter bar or waste yarn.
 
6. Turn the neckline around & rehang it with the wrong side facing you.
 
7. You are going to bind off the neckline by rehanging the first row of the neckline stitches. You will have 2 stitches on each needle.
 
8. Bind off the neck over 2 gate pegs loosely.
 
If you want you can knit more than just the one row for the ridge. Sometimes I do 2 rows for a more pronounced ridge. Just a little something to add interest!!
 

PQ 1500s 

As you know, I bought a Brother PQ 1500s earlier this year & I just love it. It is a straight stitching machine that is advertised as a quilting machine. I was looking for a bias binder foot to fit on my machines to attaché bias tape. I bought 2 binder foots(feet??) from Brother that are made for the PRW 420 but they didn't work very well.
 
 
For the PRW 420 & 1/4" tape.
Also for the PRW 420 For 1/2" tape.
 
Neither of these worked very well. In the demonstrations they show the feet work perfectly but in actual practice not so well.
 
I saw this foot that is for an industrial machine from SailRite. 
I bought this foot & attached it to my PQ machine, which is a semi-industrial machine & it worked even better than I had hoped. It was exactly what I was looking for.
 
Here it is on my machine. You can't see it but I have taped a piece address label on the bed of the machine. The foot is what is called a 'swing away' foot & it chipped the bed of the machine where it slides  around to working or non working status. I thought with a little bit of tape that would cushion the bed & it wouldn't chip any more than it is. So far it is working.
 
 
 
My DD says that I am neurotic to get so upset over a couple of little dings. I like to keep my things looking nice & it really upsets me when something like this happens. I am crazy?? Maybe!!. My first impulse was to throw myself on the floor & scream & kick, but managed to avoid doing that. But I am not happy about it. :(