Jane likes it

By | April 27, 2011

Over the weekend, I finished knitting my Swirl—whoo hoo! So Monday morning found me on my knees, threading blocking wires through the edges of a dampened Swirl and laying everything out just so.

with a fan, for good measure

Miraculously, despite the wet weather but because of the fan, the Swirl dried in just a day. Then came the seaming.

Here’s how it worked: Picture the Swirl laid out flat, with the sleeves underneath the outer octogon. You’re looking at the insides of the sleeves, the inside of the lower back, and the outsides of the back collar and the lapels.

blocked and ready to be seamed

Note that I left long tails attached to the Swirl when I finished knitting the sleeves. These tails were handy for seaming the sleeves.

With the sleeves folded, it’s easier to fathom how the rest of the seaming works.

with sleeves folded, though not yet seamed

See how the selvedges of the sleeve fronts form raglan lines that meet at the back neck? That edge gets seamed to the inside edge of the octogon. You can kind of see it in the next photo, where the collar has been folded back and the yet-to-be-seamed edges have been scrunched up next to each other.

with to-be-seamed edges mushed up to each other

Anyway, after all the origami folding and the seaming, you end up with a Swirl.

Jane models, once again

I think it looks pretty good on Jane. Don’t you?

I’m seriously tempted to knit another Swirl someday. I have a pile of blue and green yarns of various textures that have been marinating in my stash for years, waiting for just such an excuse to come out and play. I’d probably cast on provisionally for the sleeves, and leave live stitches instead of binding off. Then I could graft along the undersides of the sleeves, eliminating the bulk of a seam. This time, though, I was happy to cast on and bind off normally—it let me toss the Swirl around with abandon, without fear of losing live stitches, as I flipped it this way and that and learned how it all went together… just in time for the Spring Fling.

5 Comments