Finishing School

Make a baby sweater and learn a load of useful finishing skills! This sweater has all the elements of a pieced garment: three needle bind-off, mattress stitch seams, hybrid seams, picking up stitches, buttonholes. We'll cover everything from basic gauge to weaving in ends and blocking, over three sessions spaced two weeks apart.

Please note: this is not meant to be an easy baby sweater - we are knitting a small garment to learn the finishing skills that are applicable to many projects, including adult sweaters.

Skills Required: Cast on, knit, purl, work ribbing independently, bind off, basic increases and decreases.

Skills Acquired: Reversing shaping, increase (or decrease) evenly, three needle bind-off, mattress stitch seam, hybrid seam, picking up stitches, buttonholes, sewing on buttons, weaving in ends, blocking.

Materials~

• Yarn: Approximately 210 yards smooth worsted weight yarn (Universal Deluxe Worsted or Deluxe Tweed, Trendsetter Union, Malabrigo Rios, Berroco Comfort) in a light color so you can see what you're doing. *If you are a loose knitter you may need additional yarn.
  
• Needles: As recommended for your yarn, US 7 (4.5mm) or 8 (5mm) straight or 24" circular.
• Accessories: scissors, tapestry needle.
• Notions: Five 1/2” buttons
  

Homework: None before class. Students are expected to knit the pieces independently between sessions. As this sweater is not larger than a gauge swatch we will cast on in class and adjust needle size if necessary.