What a Life!

Ah! The story of a little sweater.

I started making it, well, way back at the beginning of this year. It was a little pullover for my cousin Heidi’s little boy who is a couple weeks younger than Joey.

The yarn was from Knitpicks – Swish Superwash – color: Deep Ocean.

The design was essentially my own – a simple raglan using Elizabeth Zimmerman’s percentage method. The stitch pattern was from something I saw in Vogue Knitting – a little baby jacket in an issue last winter, perhaps?

I knit it flat from the bottom up. [I hate knitting in the round.] Here it is, right after I joined the sleeves with the body.

In order to continue working flat rather than in the round, I made a split for the neckline and started it when I joined everything together. The neckline, including the slit, is lined with a continuous attached I-cord. Here is a picture of the i-cord in progress.

Here it is with the neckline done, ready for seaming.

I did provisional cast ons at the bottom edges of the body and sleeves and then went back and added an attached I-cord there after everything was seamed so the edge would be continuous. (The rust yarn in the picture above is the provisional cast-on).

I had it all completed – i-cords around the lower edge and sleeves and everything – way back in April when my parents came to visit. All completed except for some what to fasten the neckline together along the slit.

I wanted to use a zipper. A zipper with metal teeth. But who would sell a zipper exactly as long as I needed it – 5″? And even if I found one, this yarn is known to shrink lengthwise when the garment is washed unless it is cared for properly. Not everyone is willing to give a little sweater, with so much time put into it, the proper care required. Would it be used once, washed, and then ruined?

I tried buttons. They were ugly. I could have purchased buttons, but I didn’t like the loops any more than I liked the yarn buttons. Yuck!

They didn’t stay on right anyway, so I took all of that back off.

And the little sweater sat in a closet and waited.

Then this week, the weather turned cooler. It was time to deliver the little sweater so it could be worn by the little boy I made it for.

I went to Hancock fabrics, and they had a jean zipper – with metal teeth – exactly the length that I needed. And I decided that what happened to the sweater after I gave it to the recipient (as a general rule) was none of my concern (though I will include care instructions).

And so this afternoon, I sewed on the zipper.

I must confess, I kind of like how it looks. In fact, it looks almost exactly as I imagined it when I went to buy the yarn.

Sometimes it just takes the pressure of a deadline to make something come out right, eh?