Finishing

I hate seaming sweaters, but the list of this year's goals has inspired me; I managed to finish up the knitting on the IM Aran last Friday, and for once, I wasted no time in throwing the bits and pieces into some water and laying them out to dry.

 

I pinned out the body pieces to measurement (22 inches across for each), but the sleeves I just laid flat and smoothed out. I pinned the strips for the saddle shoulders down because they were twisting a bit. This proved to be a good idea, since the girls later admitted to going up to the guest room and jumping on the bed.

I've sewed in the sleeves and knit the collar, but a few problems have cropped up. The first is that I obviously miscounted the rows needed for the waistband ribbing, and it's a bit shorter then the ribbing on the sleeves and collar. The second problem is that it turns out I probably should have knit the 46 size, not the 44. I'm hoping I can block it out a bit wider, to meet Himself's specific requirements, but I may be out of luck. Thnakfully I've figured out tentative fixes for both issues: if post-seaming and re-blocking, the ribbing is still too short, I'll pick up the stitches, pick out the cast on edge (groan!) and knit a bit more ribbing. If it's still too narrow through the body, I will not rip out the whole thing and redo it - that would require a good divorce lawyer. Instead, I'll knit two strips of ribbing/seed stitch about an inch wide, and sew them in at the sides. I'll need to carry the gusset up through the armpit and down the sleeves a bit, which might add way too much volume to the sleeve, but we'll wait and see. Blocking first!