more finishing…
Last on the agenda for the Sea & Sky cardi is POCKETS!
I like to use a lap table of sorts in the form of a cutting board (dedicated to stitching only) to do my pinning and sometimes, sewing. It keeps the surface of the piece being worked smooth and stable so I can Go Real Fast without having to constantly adjust the material. Here I am using my favorites, Corsage Pins, to anchor the pocket in place.
The pocket itself has been lightly steamed on the wrong side using an iron. You can see on the right that I left a long tail when I attached the working yarn to initially knit the pocket which is going to now come in handy as I’m going to use it to sew the pocket to the body of the sweater. In fact, if I’m not short on the yarn front, I generally leave these longish tails anywhere cast ons, join-ins or reattachments are happening, because then they can be used for seaming or reinforcing or tightening up little holes, or just weaving in, because it is a PAIN to weave in short pieces — like that one below the other tail on the right. ;p
After I smooth the top of the pocket and align it to the body of the sweater, I use its leftover cast-on tail to anchor its top to the body (bonus: also weaving in an end) by making a few duplicate stitches along the body on the right side of the pocket. Repeat on the left side.
Then, I use the long tail from above to whip stitch (in aqua above) the edge of the pocket to the body. For invisibility, I use one edge loop from a knit stitch in a rib column and one from the pocket itself. If that isn’t possible, I use the purl bumps between knit stitches on the body to sew into, always using aligned vertical stitches, or on the bottom of the pocket, aligned horizontal stitches across.
Purl bumps are cool things; they hide many a tail.
Yum. Little pockets all done waiting for a nice warm bath to seal the deal…
Bonne, the cutting board is a great idea! Thanks for sharing that and your sewing up tutorial on pockets. I so enjoy reading your blog!
Ditto on the cutting board! I’ve been driving myself nuts trying to do some seaming by laying the pieces on the bed and crouching over them since my desk is a shambles and the only other table in the house is in constant use.
Those pockets look great! I have pockets I need to sew on, but they are completely sewn on the front side (and everything but the sewing has been done for months and months).
I’ll have to look into the cutting board idea, because I find with the dining room table I get irritated by the height of my working surface and the fact that piece is constantly shifting all over the place.
Oh, how smart: the cutting board, the corsage pins, but most of all, the pocket!
the sweater looks awesome!! Are you going with a hoodie? How much yarn did you use on this sweater?