Yesterday I hauled out my trusty Bernina, set it up on the dining room table, and machine-sewed the steeks in the Trellis Vest. I know that a lot of knitters like to secure the steeks with crochet or hand sewing, and I know how to do those things. I'm even teaching a class on how to do them in March at a Wool-Tyme. I've taken classes with
Alice Starmore and know that with the type of wool I'm using, I don't really need to do anything at all to anchor my stitches; the Kauni is so "sticky" that I actually have to work to rip anything out. Nonetheless, I machine stitched down the two centre stitches of all FIVE steeks--2 armholes, front opening, U-neck, and back neck. Then I turned the work over and cut everything open from the wrong side. It's so much easier to see the cutting lines from that side. I keep telling myself that I need to get some sharper scissors for this job, but I never seem to get around to it. Anyway, it all worked out perfectly and I didn't even need to take EZ's tongue-in-cheek advice to go and lie down in a dark room to recover. Here's the vest post-surgery:
The slight waviness is due to the subtle waist shaping. Here's the vest this morning after some I-cording around the outer edges (armholes still untreated). I worked it from the wrong side in order to avoid colour blips. There are invisible buttonholes on the right-hand side (women are always right, remember?)
I won't be showing off the completed vest for a while; I want to wait until I have some really excellent photos of publishable quality. In the meantime, I'm starting to think about what colourway I'd like mine in...
