4/14/13 ~ playing with photo toy….

Well, I know there are many pictures, but there are many variations to this hand knit. I thought you might enjoy perusing.
I purchased Loop-d-Loop by Teva Durham in scout of another pattern. When I saw this, it stopped me dead. I am all about challenge, variations, and the unexpected. Therefore, I knew this was a must do.

First challenge, the materials. Sight unseen and with the help of the Beehive Wool Shop in Victoria, the yarn was chosen, Modigliani’s bulky tubular chainette. Off to NYC’s A. Feibusch Corporation for the tailor made zippers (6 in all, 3 different lengths, size 5, silver metal) and decorative zipper pulls. Sold separately meaning the zippers came with plain pulls and I wanted these ring pulls. Oh boy, next step was the process of getting the decorative pulls onto the zippers.

The pieces knit up easily enough. But, one needs a very careful watch of the gauge to make sure the finished pieces work with the zippers! The most challenging part for me was the diagonal edge. I ripped out many efforts before I settled on what you see here. All the pieces are edged with single crochet, the ends of the yarn hand sewn after the weaving to avoid raveling, and then the 6 zippers were hand sewn in with lots of TLC.

Finally, I wanted to firm up the neckline to eliminate chance of stretching and pulling. This was easily done by running a piece of yarn, the color of the knitted piece, through the back loop of the stitches, in this case at the point of the turned over collar, gathering to the exact measurement, and hand sewing a piece of twill tape over. Now, no pulling, the tape matches the zipper tape, and you have a wonderful sweater jacket for all seasons. The sleeves are purposely long for boyfriend sweater look.