Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 22:07:23 -0500 From: Sally Melville To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: re:KNIT, seaming Now that Gillian has tried out a preliminary version of the following, and the list seems to be up and running, I shall post this all to the list. So here goes: my instructions for seaming in drop shoulders. WARNING You will now find out two things about me. 1) I reduce things to their simplest forms. (You may read what follows and ask "And what's so simple about this!*$@?#^??") What I mean is that, if I can, I like to reduce things to their common elements. Probably a function of loving high school algebra! (And that was a serious statement!) But I may sometimes indulge in over-reduction to the sacrifice of clarity? 2) I am TERRIBLY picky--a real stickler for technique. I'm sure that even if you find what follows useful, many of you will "modify" some of it. BACKGROUND This is based on, and supposes, a knowledge of "mattress" or "Kitchener" stitch. If you don't know it, look it up in whatever reference source you have. (Gillian mentioned that there was an article on it by Liz in the newest Knitters' magazine?) IF YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH IT, YOU MAY SKIP ALL THE BACKGROUND INFORMATION. It is a method of seaming done from the right side (which Gillian particularly appreciated. She had been seaming with a backstitch and from the wrong side.) It is usually shown for side seams only, but works equally well for shoulders and for sewing in the sleeves of drop shoulder garments (as I hope you shall see). It also may be different from other methods of seaming because it takes one stitch into the seam allowance. (Some claim not to like this feature--until they try it. I think they suppose that knitting doesn't need seam allowances and should look as good from the inside as the out. Well, there's nothing wrong with a neat seam allowance, and my experience with edge stitches is the EVERYONE'S are ugly and have no business on the outside of a garment. With a few possible exceptions--of stitches, not knitters--that I won't go into here.) To prepare a garment for this kind of seaming, work edge stitches (one stitch on each edge of each piece) in st st. DO NOT SLIP EDGE STITCHES EVERY SECOND ROW. (Many patterns are written WITH selvedge stitches; some are not. You may want to check--and add them in if necessary--so your side patterns match up.) Here are the basic mechanics of mattress stitch. On side seams, *go down with tapestry needle, 1 st from the edge, come up 2 "bars" (actually the threads which represent the rows) later, cross over to the other piece, rep from *, then go back into the hole you came out of and repeat from * again. Pull the seaming thread 'til just taught. (Hope this is clear. A diagram will help immeasureably.) If done properly, it is invisible. (I usually demonstrate this by having students seam off-white swatches with bright orange thread. The seams, and thread, disappear.) The process works fine for shoulder seams too. You cast off all sts, then work the same method, taking up "stitches" instead of "bars," being sure to work BELOW the cast off edge (so it is taken into the seam allowance). (At this point in a class, I would point out to students how similar this is to grafting. The MOTION is the same. There are differences, of course: you are not working off "open" stitches, and you pull tighter with seaming than you ever would with grafting.) SEAMING IN A DROP SHOULDER So, for side seams, you seam "bars" or rows against rows, and for shoulder seams you seam stitches against stitches. For a drop shoulder seam, you are combining the two: ie, stitches (from the top of the sleeve) against bars (from the side of the garment). The problem here is that 1 st does not equal 1 bar; ie, knitting is not proportional that way. SOOOOOO, here is where I get really sticky. I match the middle of the sleeve to the shoulder seam of the garment. I see how far the sleeve extends down the side of the garment and mark the lower point with a pin. I count rows from pin to shoulder seam. I already know how many sts are in HALF the sleeve top edge. I take the smaller number (the # of sts) and DIVIDE IT BY the larger number (the # of rows). I do this on the calculator and get a fraction in response. If the fraction is around .66667, that is a 2/3 ratio. So I need to seam 2 sts for every 3 rows. I do this by taking up 1 st against 2 rows (bars), then 1 st against 1 bar, rep to end. If the fraction is around .75, that is a 3/4 ratio. So I need to seam 3 sts for every 4 rows. I do this by taking up 1 1/2 sts against 2 bars, rep to end. If the fraction is around .80, that is a 4/5 ratio. So I need to seam 4 sts for every 5 rows. I do this by taking up as for the 3/4, then taking up 1 st against 1 bar, rep to end. See, I told you this was picky!! In addition, I do the following: I cut my long piece of seaming thread, thread the tapestry needle, and, leaving a LONG tail, begin at the SHOULDER SEAM and the MIDDLE OF THE SLEEVE. After working down one side of the sleeve and garment, I go back to the shoulder seam and work down the other side. This way they always meet at the bottom. I know that others will choose not to do the calculations but will use pins to lay the sleeve against the garment. I just find this works better for me. (I'm good with numbers but terrible with pins!) Gillian, who was my guinea pig, ran into an interesting problem almost immediately. Her sleeve top was fill of cables, moss st, and honeycombs!! Lots of fun. This does present special problems. I handle it by CASTING OFF with lots of k2tog's or p2tog's so that my cabled edge really reflects an appropriate number of stitches with respect to width. Hope this is appropriately clear. I feel terrible that this had to wait for so long, because for many of you who are quite technically expert the anticipation may have been much greater than warranted. But for those of you to whom this is a mini-revelation (although hardly rocket science), if you have questions I will be happy to answer them. Regards, Sally Melville smelvill@nh1adm.uwaterloo.ca ***************************** Date: Tue, 25 Apr 1995 16:22:06 -0400 From: Sally Melville To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: re:KNIT, more seaming I forgot a few things in my long message yesterday so will send them along today--to circumvent some obvious questions? I think I could have made some of the basic material clearer. For example, I always cast off all stitches along the top of a drop shoulder sleeve before seaming. And when I speak of seaming "stitches" against "rows," it's important to see that a row is also a "bar" and represents a single row of knitting. A stitch, which represents a single stitch of knitting, actually has two threads (the two sides to the "V"), and that is why I can talk about 1/2 stitch (ie, one side/thread of a stitch or "V"), but I would never speak of 1/2 rows or "bars." Gillian actually asked about this (she asked the BEST questions), so I know that someone else might be confused also. And when I gave you the 3 ratios (2/3, 3/4, 4/5), I gave you the 3 that appear most often. HOWEVER, with moss or garter stitch you might get a 1/2 ratio (ie, 1 st for every 2 rows) which would calculate to something around .50, and which you would seam accordingly. (Pretty nice ratio to work with, actually. Wish it happened more often.) If I get some ratio that is weird and wonderful and doesn't seem to fit anywhere neatly, I sometimes round to the nearest one that seems to work. But often I will play with the calculator until I see what's going on. For eg, I might get something like .70 or .71. I will then start dividing simple numbers on the calculator (like 6 by 7, or 5 by 7, or 5 by 8) until I see what is producing a similar fraction. (.71 is actually 5/7; I would then figure out how to seam to this ratio. But, as I said before, I like to play with numbers. It's not always necessary to be so picky. More important to be CONSISTENT--to pick an appropriate ratio and stick with it. Regards, Sally Melville smelvill@nh1adm.uwaterloo.ca