Stalled

So I’ve stalled a bit on the Twisted Stitch Sweater. I cruised through the upper bodice to the armholes, separated for the fronts and back and zipped through the back much faster than I ever would have thought possible.

I really love how it’s looking, although every now and then I stop and look at it and think, dear god, am I knitting a corset? Will I ever wear this?? But I’ve tried it on a few times and it looks and fits fabulously. I’ve stalled not for lack of love of the sweater but because I’m having a hard time deciding how to shape the neckline. Well, really, I got to where I should start the neckline, and I didn’t feel like doing any math so I put it aside and cast on for the gathered pullover (ravelry link) instead.

I can’t possible express how excited I am to be working on this sweater. I haven’t knit anything at this large a gauge for myself….ever, and it’s so fast! 19 st/inch on US size 8 needles – the Twisted Stitch sweater is 32 st/inch on US 2s!

I obviously don’t have anything really interesting to show for it since I just cast on last night, but I decided to do a turned hem, which I love the look of. This is my first turned hem so I thought I’d share some details about how it’s done:

Right: right side of hem; Left: wrong side of hem.

I used the invisible provisional cast-on method found here (great video!), which was definitely a little tricky for joining in the round. I was completely convinced my stitches were twisted until I’d knit a few rounds (I even had a dream (nightmare?) about it last night). Anyway, executing the cast-on is really easy and rhythmic and I was amazed at how quickly I cast on the required 152 stitches. Then I knit 5 rows in plain stockinette, purled one turning row (which forms the bottom edge of the hem) and knit another 5 rows plain.

Now comes the fun part: with a spare needle, I picked up the loops from the cast on edge and pulled out the waste yarn (I used slippery KnitPicks Gloss). Then I made like I was going to do a three needle bind-off and brought the lower hem edge up to and behind the upper edge (the most recently knit stitches) and *knit the first stitch on the front needle together with the first stitch on the back needle. Repeat from the * across all stitches. And now I have a nice clean hem, that folds easily up at the purl row and won’t curl. Need pictures? Me too. Check these out.