September 12, 2003

Finally! Pictures and action shots of the cotton raglan sweater I knit for my husband. The sleeves and hem are in 3/2 rib, so a tubular cast-on (my preferred cast-on for ribbings) was out of the question. Besides, I think the yarn is too thick for the tubular, so I doubt I would have been able to use it even if the ribbing had been in 1/1 or 2/2 rib. I used one of my other favorites: the cable cast-on. (I had tried the two-tail, but the cotton was making the cast-on edge stretch out too much). What else? The neckband bind-off...I had initially tried a traditional bind-off (simply knitting the knit stitches and purling the purl stitches, then binding off), but the ribbing flared out too much and the edge looked too rustic. So I ripped back and tried a decrease bind-off, my favorite alternative* to the tubular bind-off for ribbing. Much better! It's firm and looks decorative. There are two ways to do it, but for this sweater I simply knit all stitches together, including the purl ones, from front to back and placed the loop back on the needle without twisting. [Decrease bind-offs are described in Big Book of Knitting and Knitter's Handbook.]




It's a nice design. I may do it again, maybe in a wool blend using another colorway. (Check out Melanie's; she's doing this sweater in a gorgeous blue.) My husband likes the sweater, and my reward for knitting it: He wore it on Saturday and Sunday, and again today at the office! [Awwwwwwwww.] All my knitting efforts duly compensated.

*If anyone has a favorite bind-off for ribbings other than kitchener or tubular, traditional or chain, please share :-)

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