May 03, 2005

Sometimes I get the most knitting done while sitting in the passenger side of a car. If I'm going to be sitting in the car for longer than 15 minute stretches I can be sure that I'll have uninterrupted knitting time because i) I can't get up and do something else, and ii) I don't get car sick. Excellent knitting time guaranteed.

Last week Monsieur Le Hubby took a day off and we drove out to Vienne to visit Aunt Josephine and Uncle Pierre. 40 minutes of car knitting* while I sang along to the radio like bad karaoke! This time I took all the pieces of my son's cotton jacket so I could seam it in the car. [Here's a peek at me backstitching the shoulders. And the eagle eye will notice that I'm wearing something I hand-knit for myself. Can you guess what it is?] How I seamed: I backstitched the shoulders (no three-needle bind-off this time; I have a feeling this cotton is going to grow with wear), joined the side and sleeve sleeves using mattress stitch, and then picked up stitches for the neckband, which I then worked in ribbing. [Wanna see a picture of the neckband while it was still on the needles? Oh, go on.] I then knit the zipper facings, which are not knit into the jacket. They're knit separately and later joined to the front edges of the jacket.

So. Seaming is complete and I'm a happy knitter. Time to sew on the zipper and zipper facings, already! But for some reason, I felt the need to throw the seamed jacket - along with the zipper facings - in the gentle cycle of the wash before sewing in the zipper. I didn't want the zipper facings to act strangely AFTER the zipper was sewn into them and the jacket was washed for the first time, so I decided to wash it all before sewing in the zipper. I always give my finished knits this sort of final blocking session before their first wear anyway, so it wasn't lost time even though the pokey drying cotton took two days to dry on the blocking board:




Now! Here comes the part that really rocked my socks: Sewing in the zipper. I simply pinned the zipper into the facing, basted, and then sewed using backstitch:




From this moment on I will try to ensure that all my zippered knits have facings similar to these. Sewing the zipper into them first is easier and less tedious than sewing a zipper directly onto the fronts of a jacket. I sewed the zipper into one facing in less than half an hour, and did it while watching Forrest Gump on dvd. Run, Forrest, Run!

[Zipper facing footnote: I simply followed the directions in the pattern for knitting this facing, but I've seen a similar zipper facing in Katharina Buss's Big Book of Knitting under the "zippers" section. The facing is doubled, just like the one I used, and is also in stockinette stitch. Refer to her book for instructions.]

Next up: Sewing the facings (with the zipper already in them), onto the jacket.

*I only work on my knitting on our way to Vienne, but never on the way back home. On the way back I just sit in the car like a satisfied greedy gut and digest all the wine and good food Aunt Josephine serves.

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