Pocketses
So one of the things that drew me to this pattern were the pockets—I’m not much one for putting things in them but these are delightful, the way the pattern flows cleanly from the outside of the pocket to the rest of the sweater:
(picture borrowed from Laura!)
I have to say that I’m actually rather fond of finishing techniques; mattress stitch, kitchener, duplicate stitch, all of it is kind of zen and let’s be honest, it can really make or break a project. But I’ve never sewn down pocket linings before so I have to admit it made me nervous! If I had been sewing the fronts of the pockets down to the rest of the sweater I think I would’ve gone for a combination of mattress stitch and duplicate stitch, but in this pattern the backs are sewn down to the fronts, which left me clueless. I did some research, though, and someone on Ravelry suggested running a contrast thread through the purl bumps on the wrong side to make it easier to sew in a straight line:
and I have to tell you, doing this is kind of genius. Not only does it tell you exactly where to sew, it also allows you to plan ahead and pick up exactly enough purl bumps to match the number of stitches (or slipped stitches, in my case) that need to be sewn down, so you’re not left with too much pocket and not enough sweater front, or vice versa.
After that I just took my working yarn (actually the tail from where I bound off the top of the pocket), and used whip stitch to sew the outside leg of each slipped stitch to its corresponding purl bump.
Easy! And neat and tidy! Which are three of my favorite things, you know.
Jeshknits 