Flipping Out

Sewing is NOT my favorite part of knitting. One of the reasons I knit things in one piece from the top down is so I don't have to spend a lot of time sewing when I'm done knitting.

In any case involving a zipper, however, there's sewing to be done. As zippers are the handiest things for the fronts of cardigans and jackets, however, I'm doomed to sewing.

To do a zipper correctly, you have to do a lot of sewing.

On this little sweater, there was also the issue of the flipping garter stitch border.

Here you can see the border flipping on the unsewn side and behaving on the sewn side:




And here's a close-up of the misbehaving side:




Contrasted with a close-up of the side with ribbon applied:




And the right side, behaving beautifully:




After all of the sewing for the zipper and the flipping border, I was no longer sure whether the sweater qualified as cute. Or even nice. It was just an endless collection of stitches, knotted sewing thread, and bits to be eyed critically. Is the color of the zipper really close enough to the color of the ribbon and the color of the yarn? Did I do the zipper well enough or should I rip it out and do it again? Is plaid anachronistic for a baby?




The new parents, however, were touched at the sight of a handknit sweater for their beautiful new baby boy.