Ok, so the finishing workshop taught by Barbara Kerr was great. It wasn't the most relaxing four hours ever. It was like real work - you had to keep up with the class, and people (including myself) were a little anxious with lots of questions of "can you show me..." or "am I doing this right..." or "what do I do now...". But I learned a lot in a much quicker period of time and no doubt with less frustration than if I'd tried to learn it myself from a book or off tutorials online.
Let's see if (with the help of the handout and swatches) I can remember what we learned:
1) short rows: I think I get the concept but I need to see it applied in a pattern to be sure
2) 3-needle bind-off (to connect for example at the shoulder instead of binding off and sewing together: pretty easy technique and very cool!
3) mattress stitch (invisible seam to connect two stockinette pieces side by side, eg side seams in a sweater): I've heard this referred to all the time but have never tried it. It's also very cool. This would have been a good technique for the seaming on all the Aurora items.
4) grafting open stitches to rows (to connect sleeve to armhole for example): I got a little confused to begin with and then didn't bother ripping out on my swatches, but I got the hang of it and this was a very cool technique also.
5) garter stitch seam (invisible seam to to connect two garter stitch pieces side b side eg on a blanket of squares or a garter stitch sweater): sounds simple but this was a little confusing to me and my seam was not terribly "invisible". I'll have to try this again.
6) the handout includes kitchener stitch but I don't think we did this in class
7) picking up stitches (eg along a neckline to add a collar/finish it off): this technique I had used before for Molly's cardigan but I have a clearer understanding of it now.
8) sewn cast off (gives you a stretchy and very even cast off): this was a pretty easy and very cool technique
9) tubular cast on (to produce a rolled edge): also easy and cool oops, forgot to take a photo of this one
10) attach vertical rib for buttonhole band: this was done using needles 3 - 4 sizes smaller than the body was knit with, although I'm not sure why as the stitches are meant to be the same size. This was an interesting technique too, although I didn't get through all the buttonhole examples.
And that was it. Not bad eh? Not that I'd seamed much before, but now I'm not going to be so inclined to put seaming off as I'll be dying to try my newfound techniques!
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