What makes one sweater look hand-crafted and another one look home-made? Good yarn and good stitches help, but often the real difference is in the finishing. Even a premium yarn and most careful knitting can be wrecked with slap-dash blocking or seams. Here are four tips for making knitting look professional.
Knitting Techniques Count
You want a beautiful, functional fabric well-suited to your pattern. Not too tight and stiff for comfortable wearing. Not too limp or saggy so it has no shape.
Even tension helps, but no one knits every stitch like a machine. Thank goodness blocking helps smooth out minor imperfections.
Pay attention to "rowing out" caused when your knit rows have one tension and your purl rows have another, perhaps looser, tension. Alternate tensions form a subtle stripe across your stockinette fabric. If you can't hold your yarn tighter when purling, maybe with an extra loop around a finger, try a size smaller needle when you purl back.
Take care not to split plies while knitting. Of course you fixed any dropped stitches or other glitches as you went, right?
Blocking Makes a World of Difference
If you've ever knit lace, you know the magic of blocking can turn a lumpy mess into angel wings. Blocking other knits may have less dramatic results, but still make a significant improvement in your fabric. Tensions even out and relax, sometimes yarn blooms, becomes plumper and fills out any empty spaces. Investigate how many ways you can block. Sometime you dunk it, squeeze out excess water and pin it out to dry the right size and shape. Sometimes you steam it, stretch it this way and that, then let dry. Other times pin out, spritz with water and let dry does the trick, or hit it with steam from an iron.
Seaming Can Be Killer--in a Good Way or Bad Way
There are many good seaming methods. Find which one bests suits each garment you make, based on fiber content and stability of the fabric. Great knitters plan ahead from the day they swatch whether they'll slip edge stitches--or not--for whichever method they'll use for seaming. Others add an extra stitch at each edge, then absorb them into the seam. Some hand sew with mattress stitch, running stitch or back stitch. Others machine stitch. Others crochet their seams together. Just take care with your tension and placement of each stitch.
Buttons or Zippers? Oh My!
If you want a button that will never fall off, sew it on with good thread, secure the tail, and clip it. Then, do it again. Yes, sew your button a second time with another length of thread. One may fail, but not both. Buttonholes may need extra stability with a grosgrain ribbon backing. Sew it on so the ribbon lies smooth, no loose puckers, no drawing the knitting too tight, with buttonholes in ribbon and sweater matched up. Sew in zippers with special care so you don't stretch or shrink the knitting or get the yarn too close where it will get caught in the teeth when zipped up. Sometimes ribbon, binding or a knitted facing inside makes a wonderful finish.
Do these tips make you sigh? Some knitters enjoy finishing, others would rather eat worms. If making your knitting look professional will enhance your enjoyment, hire someone who knows how to finish off a sweater. Meanwhile you can knit another!
Remember, you knit for fun, relaxation and productive results. For tips on how to avoid knitting mistakes from a professional tailor who knits, visit my Knits Gone Bad blog at http://knitfitninja.com/blog/
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