As I've mentioned before, a lot my stuff is in storage as our house is for sale. For some reason that I cannot understand, an overstuffed craft room does not "show" well. This led to some negotiation as to what constitutes "overstuffed" and what constitutes "essential tools and materials", so the result is a compromise not fully endorsed by either party in the negotiation, but there you have it. My sewing machine is in storage.
The instructions call for knitting the bands and then sewing the zipper to the bands before attaching the bands to the front opening of the sweater. I think this is a solid plan, but without a sewing machine I decided to take the opportunity to do a little research to see what other methods are available. I should also remind you here that I'm knitting on a mid-gauge machine with hand knitting yarn, so my fabric is thicker that those using standard gauge. That also makes me shy away from using a sewing machine on my knits as they are thicker and the stitches are a larger gauge. And I also find sewing successfully on knits very challenging to get a smooth, non-puckering line of stitches. So I poked around the internet for alternative methods, and YouTube did not disappoint.
Take a minute and watch this excellent video from Interweave. Doesn't that "knitpicker" look exactly like a latch tool that we are so familiar with?
I didn't stop there though, I found another great video here. Even though this was addresses crochet specifically, there are things to be learned.
Finally, here is a blog entry referred to in the Interweave video. Have a read.
So I thought about these and decided that I would just do a running stitch up each side of the zipper, like so:
Once I finished prepping the zipper, I went to the machine and and knit the front bands.
What is this striped blanket you may ask? Well, everything that isn't pale blue is waste yarn, and both bands are knit with waste yarn separating them, and also beginning and ending with waste yarn. As I get to the end of this project I'm running out of waste yarn already wound into balls so I've been just grabbing whatever is on my table - hence the lovely combination of pale green, dark blue and white.
Once the bands are hung and the waste yarn is removed, I can assure you with the picture below that there were front bands hidden in that striped fabric hanging from my machine, and here they are in place.
Here's a closer look at the nice finish that the one row of garter stitch gives (still unblocked though remember):
You may notice that I didn't sew the zipper on the bands before I hung the bands on the front. It was a close decision, but I decided against it as my zipper is a bit bulky and I want the teeth very close to the folded over edge, but the tape is wide, so I was afraid it would interfere with the carriage as I was hanging the front bands and knitting the loose row for the chain cast off. The zipper is also a bit short as I had very limited selection where I shopped. So I wanted to place it on the garment to see where it would be least noticeable to sacrifice the length - at the top or bottom. Finally, I'm not terribly happy with the colour of the zipper (it's a light grey not quite as it is showing up in the picture), so if I can find a better one I'm going to replace it.
Here's a picture of the sewn in zipper:
You can see that there are a few small "waves" in the zipper - nothing terrible and I'm going to let the hoodie rest on the dress form for the day and see if anything works itself out. I suspect that the problem is that the zipper is just too heavy - the tape is quite stiff. There is a lot to consider when picking out the proper zipper for a project!
I'll be back with a follow up on that soon, as well as the next step - attaching the hood!
Nancy
