Thanks to this sweater and the Esther socks, I’m getting some good experience with hemming. The socks provided my first experience with a picot edging. I used a provisional cast-on, folded the hem over and used a round of K2TOGs to knit the cast-on stitches together with the stitches on the needles. I used the same technique for the first sleeve of the sweater, but I didn’t do a picot edging at the folding point, just a straight row of purl stitches.
For the body of the sweater, I decided to try a sewn hem. Based on what I read at on the Two Strands blog (see my previous post), sewing is supposed to produce a less-noticeable hem. I knitted the appropriate rounds (plus a few extra) and spent the rest of my weekend knitting time trying to figure out how to sew it neatly together! I was having difficulty recognizing which purl bump to pick up and then aligning it with the cast-on stitches correctly. Part of the problem is that I can’t refer to the stitches that are already done because the hem obscures them. Another problem is that I’m using dark yarn (harder to see in general). I guess it would easiest if there were a color change right where I wanted to put the hem (note to self for future planning!). I ended up running a stretch of waste yarn around the project to highlight the stitches I want to hem:
Each stitch is easy to see against the contrasting color. I have a long way to go before I can see how it all comes out …
Here’s a pic of the finished sleeve, btw:
