On the Needles

Last week I got a bag of freebies at the gathering of the sewing sisters... the stuff outside of the plastic bag was a donation from my auntie who was cleaning out her sewing room.  She's preparing to put some additional cabinets in there, so she emptied the whole room to clear a space.  She says she's only putting back what actually is intended for projects.  I am the beneficiary of some of the overflow.  These partial skeins of pastel yarn will make some very nice doll items.

 

Actually this picture is of stuff sitting on the end table at my house.  You can see my toes at the left, and they look mighty far away!!

What I was knitting last night is another doll sweater.  This one is with self-striping yarn.  I wound two balls with what remained from knitting the back, and I did a pretty decent job of lining up the stripes on the two fronts. 

The sweater fronts laying sideways in my lap.

 You do that by unwinding enough of the yarn to match the next color change, then back up to the shortest end and cut the longer one to match.  Then you cast on the same number of stitches from each ball of yarn respectively.  Being a few stitches off is no big deal, but they should line up fairly well.  These will match better after the pieces are blocked.

 

Then I sew the pieces together at the shoulders and pick up the sleeve stitches along the edge.  The trick is always to mark the 'ending' spot for the sleeves in the same place on both sides of both sleeves -- 4 matching points!  On stripes it is just a little easier, but it's important to get it right.  If you don't, when you sew up the side seams you'll have a tough time.

Ask me how I know this!  <wink wink>

Happy birthday tomorrow to my favorite son. 

Son behind the tree -- grandson with big fish!

Keep calm and knit on...