Snip!

The steek is cut!

After trying out a few techniques with the sewing machine (trust me, don’t even bother trying it with the feed dog down), I got the brilliant idea of using the walking foot I bought when I was quilting. Of course, I had to remember how to put the darn thing on my sewing machine correctly, first. But it worked out pretty well.

The biggest problem was the crocheted edging I had done – the presser foot had a little trouble with that thick edge, so I couldn’t sew as closely to it as I’d have liked, and my sewing line wasn’t too straight. But my sewing machine behaved pretty well and didn’t jam up, and I think it will do. I decided against doing a second line of machine stitching – mostly because I didn’t want to push my luck with either stretching out the yarn, or ending up with a big knot of thread on the wrong side in case the machine acted up on me.

I ordered the Meg Swansen DVD “Cardigan Details” and waited until it arrived today before doing the machine stitching and cutting. I’m glad I waited, because it was helpful to see how she did the stitching. And it was also great to see how she finished the cut edge – if I’d seen that first, I might not have bothered with the crochet.

Pluses of using the crocheted steek:

• It makes a pretty edge.
• It made the steek stitches really easy to see and cut. No fear!

Minuses of using the crocheted steek:

• It made the machine stitching more difficult. Would it have been better to do the machine stitching first, and then the crochet? Maybe, as long as the stitching was done far enough away that it didn’t interfere with the stitches you’d be crocheting.
• It makes a thicker and harder edging.

I think I probably knitted the yoke a bit farther up than I should have for a cardigan – the neck will be pretty high. But since I probably wouldn’t ever have it buttoned up all the way, I think it will still work out.