Eek, steeks

G'day all!

A monster has been eating pretty much all my crafting time over the last month.  I've had very little time off from it, knitting it on the ferry to the island, taking it to knit night, working late on it...

But at last it is done!  And it was done in time for Syttende Mai, Norwegian Constitution Day, or their national day.

I wore it to the big parade in Ballard, the parade that passes along the "end" of my street.

Not a very good shot and you can't even see
the Norwegian flag but behind me is a
Setesdal pullover and some folk costumes.

This was the most complicated thing I've knitted I reckon.

Take one tube, mostly knitted in the round, with two sleeves also knitted in the round.  Knitting in the round means no purling.  This makes it quicker.

Body and two sleeves

Stick the tube under the sewing machine and sew along the four stitches with no pattern down the front of the tube.

 

Sewing knitting.  How odd.

Note that there is no pattern down the centre four stitches.

This is what the wrong side looked like after sewing.
The orange yarn is to help me keep on track.

Then, take a deep breath and threaten your knitting with its natural enemy.  One of its many natural enemies.

Can you hear the knitting screaming?

OK, scissors are probably not a natural enemy of knitting, but they certainly are an unnatural enemy. 

Eeek!

And start cutting.  And keep cutting until

Ta-dum!

Your tube is a flat sheet. 

The wrong side

After all that excitement, you have to take a little break and admire the wrong side of the knitting. 

Interminable button bands

I thought I'd never finish the button bands.  They seemed to take forever.  Note that the left button band is attached and the placket is sewn down over the raw edges of the knitting.  Clever, eh?  These Norwegians know a thing or two about making sturdy items. 

The sleeve holes also have to be steeked.

The sleeves also have to have steeks cut for them so that you can add the sleeves.  If you don't have arms, I guess you wouldn't need to steek here but I do have arms so I added the sleeves. 

An inserted arm.

It occurs to me that I did not take pics of the inside of the cardigan.  The inside is a thing of beauty.  No raw seams - the tops of the sleeves have plackets to cover the steeked edges.  The neckband has a built in lining.  It all looks beautiful.

So how does it look on?

This is a traditional-style Fana sweater.  It is boxy.  I made mine smaller/closer fitting for my size than would normally be the case because I don't like massive garments.  The checkerboard neckband is somewhat wider than that I've seen in pics from the 1950s, but I just followed the pattern and the pattern said make it like this.

Details:
Norwegian Blue, Pining for the Fjords
Dalegarn 12618 Fana, knitted in Dalegarn Heilo, Norwegian Blue, and Lopez Island "mutt" wool (combining traditional with local)
Started 20 April 2013, finished 17 May 2013, just in time!
Mods - I sewed the shoulders incorrectly and umm misread the instructions for the buttons so it has seven buttons, not eight.  And my row gauge was way off.
Rav page

Next time, I'll probably just have pics of flowers.  LOL.  I may even rant and rave about things that have been happening, but recently, not that much has happened except for Spring!  Spring is a glorious thing :-)

And now, after a month of project monogamy, I can get back into doing other things, like knitting a silly hat and knitting socks and making another quilt and spinning yarn and sorting through my Stuff and working out what has to be rehomed.

anon!