A Finished Object...

At the weekend, I finally got the sewing machine out and put the zip into the draught excluder that I knitted ages ago.


After stuffing it looks rather like a snake that's eaten something bigger than it was, a bit lumpy and bumpy, but nevermind, it does cut the draught out.


Details:

Yarn - cygnet wool-rich aran (the colour is best in the top photo).
Needles - 3.75mm DPNs
Pattern - start with 6 stitches, increase 6 stitches per round to 90ish, knit for a bit, leaving opening for zip, then decrease and cast off.

This didn't work out as planned. The yarn was meant to felt and it didn't (I guess that wool-rich is not the same thing as wool) so it should have been smaller in diameter and tighter (which would probably have taken care of the over-stuffed snake look).

The gathered pullover is at the vest stage. The body is knitted and the shoulders seamed (three needle bind-off) but the house is just too dusty from the contractors to block it before starting the sleeves (I want to try top-down, set-in sleeves).

Happy New Year.

And with a new year comes new knitting (and stash - more on this later)...

I've finished the knitting on the improvised draught excluder I was making for the back of our kitchen door. I used Cygnet Wool-rich Aran yarn which I had in my stash and cast on 6 stitches on 3.75mm DPN's. I increased six stitches every round until I had 96 stitches, knitted a tube for a few inches, knitted flat for several more inches to make an opening for a zip, went back to the round for a few more inches, then decreased back to six stitches and pulled the yarn through. I then crocheted round the zip opening for a couple of rounds to make an edging.


Finally, I tried to felt it to get it to pull in a bit and tighten up. This failed, twice... once and 60C and once at 90C! Never mind, it's knitted at a fairly tight guage so it should be fine.


The zip has still to be procured but is to allow me to remove the stuffing (probably lead curtain weights and plastic bags) for washing as anything kicking around on our kitchen floor is going to get pretty filthy.

There are modifications I would make if I were doing this again:
1) Check before I start that my yarn felts!
2) Use garter stitch at the edge of the zip opening to prevent the edges curling ( the crochet edging doesn't really solve this).
3) If yarn isn't going to felt, only increase to about 60 stitches.

More photos to follow once I put the zip in and do the finishing.