purls of joy...

I'm back at the LK150, making this tweed Thunder Bay Poncho [https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2018/10/rib-recap.html]  (if you're interested in more details of what I did, check out other posts on either side of that link - go to October 2018 at the right side drop down menu on this page) from the good stuff that I'd been saving forever. I have an affinity for the purl side of a slubby or tweedy fabric. It always looks more attractive to me as the colours and slubs show up better than on the knit side. Had already convinced myself to use the knit side because of the pouch pocket and as I am preparing to seam the first shoulder line, I’m saying to myself, that’s hanging there and if the purl side is the right side, I could just do the join right now without having to take it off, turn it and rehang…the true machine knitter in me opts for the easy way! Isn’t that what we are all about, cheating our way through one knitting project after another! Purl side is now the right/public side!


bring ns back to C makes it
easier to hang second set of sts

Here, for the seam, the held stitches are all there. Cancel hold and knit a row over all to get rid of the loops/wraps from the holding. Bring the needles out and using the main yarn doubled, chain across from below - this will make a nice dividing line between the Front and Back and the chain will show on the outside of the garment. Now, you need to hang the first piece and with the needles sticking way out, it will be rather difficult. What I find helps is to move the needles back to UWP/C – use the flat side of the needle pusher and carefully push them back, leaving the latches open. Now it is much easier to rehang the open stitches off the waste yarn, putting these stitches in the hooks of the needles. Once that is done, push back on the butts to knit the front set of stitches through the chain AND the back set of stitches, leaving one set of stitches. Now, knit a loose row and chain off. Look at that seam! Nice!


long shoulder seam with chain st

centre Back seam, with outside seam

For the centre back/front seam, try this reverse seaming technique. Hang the first side, wrong (knit side here) side facing, picking up only the half outside edge of the stitch. Hang the second piece, right (purl) side facing – both knit sides are together - again half outside edge of stitch, matching yarn marks and top and bottom. Manually knit very loose row (slightly larger than T9 would be) and chain off. The chain will be on the outside and add a nice detail while the loose row allows each selvedge to lay flat without adding more bulk to the seam! And it looks neat and tidy from the inside too!

no yarn marks...

hang 2nd side, matching stripes

One of the bonuses of knitting matching stripes!
 You know I do everything I can on the machine – it makes a much better job than trying to mattress stitch seams by hand. Notice, the ends are mostly sewn before this. To do the underarm/side seam, it’s too long to hang the whole thing at one time. Hang the side from hem to underarm seam. Pick up the whole outside edge stitch, hanging evenly without stretching. Hang second side, matching stripes and filling in between.

close latches, knit tight row

 Now, basically I want a really tight row to make the seam and close it up snug, so the second colour isn’t peeking through the seam at any point. Carriage at left – going to knit a tight row (T0 – told you, tight!).

chain off loose row

The trick here is to bring the needles out and close the latches before knitting across. With the latches closed, they won’t catch into the closed/selvedge edge and cause a jam. But, first, measure out about 3 yards of the yarn and leaving that tail at the left, knit tightly to the right. Manually knit a loose row over this (don’t cut the yarn) and chain off, right to left to last stitch.



hang 2nd section without cutting yarn

Holding the last stitch on the latch tool, move it to the right end of the needle bed, along with main yarn. Now hang the sleeve underarm seam from right to left, matching stripes. Knit the tight row from right to left with the tail you reserved at the beginning, remembering to close the latches. Now, manually knit the loose row, again from right to left with the threaded-up yarn. Chain off and look at that beautiful seam!


note to self...

armhole wrong side facing

Stripes may not look so great with the outside seaming!
Left Front is done and with this outside seaming, you can just leave the shaped shoulder right there and take the corresponding back shoulder and, putting wrong sides together, hang on top, pull the Back stitches through, knit a semi-loose row and chain it off – don’t go real loose here because you want that row to stabilize the shoulder.

outside seam - uggghh!

redone, much better!

Then, without thinking it through, I hung the armhole, wrong side facing, going for that outside seam again. This looks kind of bunchy here but remember this is cotton that shrinks quite a bit, and I’m allowing for that, based on my swatch numbers. Hung the open stitches of the sleeve cap and completed that seam. Yikes! not sure I like this with the mixed tan and navy edges. Experience tells me to bite the bullet and take it out. Sometimes I might try to convince myself it will look better after the wash and yes, a lot of things do, but this one won’t change – it’s like the edge of that first pocket!
Good thing I know how to rehang open stitches!


finishing details...

Attach the band to hood: bring out the needles, same number as the ribbed band (100 stitches). The hood edge has 120 sts so decrease 20 sts (100 divided by 20 is 5) which means you want to double up on every 5th needle as you are hanging. What I do to make it easy is go across the needle bed and bring every 5th needle slightly forward (start this on the 3rd needle from the right edge so you don’t have doubled sts at either end) and then using the 3-prong tool, hang 3 sts.

Pick up the next 3 sts and double up on the needle at right that already has one stitch. Pick up next 3 sts and hang on new needles. Continue across the row, doubling on every second pick up and it will work out perfectly! Remove the waste yarn, take the ribbed band, turn it and hang it stitch for stitch. Pull the band sts through the hood edge, manually knit loose row and chain off. Graft the back seam and try it on. Should be good to go.
Seam all the rest of the poncho and then pin the hood in place and try it on again just to be sure – the hood has to be deep enough from the top of the head to the neckline so it doesn’t hold the garment up off the shoulders and the front opening should be big enough for your face and most

important, the neck opening has to be large enough for the head to fit through! If any of these are compromised, you need to make another hood, fixing the issues but I’m good to go!  
You could stitch this in by hand but who’s kidding who? I’m doing it on the LK! Because it is a circle, start at one end and do it in sections.  There are no open stitches, it’s all closed edge on both pieces. I want the seam to be on the inside, so am putting right sides together, hanging the body first, right side facing me and then the hood piece, wrong facing. I leave it all pinned together from the try-on and just un-pin the section I’m working on.
To keep track that each side will be the same, start off figuring out how many needles for the entire neckline, so hold the centre back at 0, pull the centre front to the right – I got 55 needles for half the neckline. It’s my experience that the back-neck area of any garment should be pulled in slightly and the width of the back neck was 20 sts half plus the 3 cm/1 inch drop and I want to reduce that width slightly,

so I hang it over 20-0-20 needles. Put the shoulder seam at #21 right and then stretch out the front neck to the centre of the garment and hang the edge, half the outside edge stitch. This will likely be a bit less than the original 55, mine was at #50. Now, hang the hood section, from the centre front to the first shoulder.

Manually knit fairly loose sts – not quite all the way back to ‘B’ but close (just doing a single row to join and cast-off all in one – no need for the extra bulk of a joining row and casting off!) - to the shoulder and then chain those off except the last one. Hang the back neck, over to the opposite shoulder (#20 left), and then the hood. On this section, for the 16-0-16 section, the loose stitch for the chain cast-off is a little smaller to further draw in the back neck. Finish off the other side. Throw it over your head to make sure all is still good and breathe a huge sigh of relief!
Got ‘er done with still plenty of wearing days left for this season!
Hope this all makes sense!