Clementine's Collar: Take One

Here is Clementine's first collar, and by saying first I do mean to imply that there will be a second.

Click here to zoom out a little

It's cute enough, but I think the body of the sweater itself is fabulous in all other ways, so cute enough really doesn't cut it for me.

Here are the things I don't like about it:

The ribbing pulls the collar in too much. I bound off early on the body and sleeves to insure that the collar would sit lower on the neck. The ribbing undoes that effect. Blocking might help. Separating the neck join early would probably help. Ripping it out will definitely help - so that's where I'm going!

The ribbing isn't long enough to flow back over the sweater the way I envisioned. I could add more ribbing, but then I think we'd be getting into bulky territory. This sweater is more delicate. If I added ribbing at the collar, I'd have to add it at the hem and sleeves, too. I'll stick with delicate.

See? Not very flowy.

The break in the neck is a little sloppy along the edges. Someone could have done a slip-stitch edging. Someone will next time.

Things I like:

These button holes.

Aren't they cute? To make them I just stopped knitting with the working yarn three stitches from the end. I picked up a new bit of yarn, finished the row, and knit the next three stitches of the next row. I dropped the scrap of yarn, then picked up the working yarn and finished the row. On the next row I re-joined the last three stitches with the working yarn. Very cute, right? Unfortunately, it has to go with the rest of the collar. At least I have a picture.

The very cool sewn bind-off for 2x2 rib that took forever to do. This technique can be found in Vogue: The Ultimate Knitting Guide. It can be very hard to do if you don't sit in utter silence with Vogue: The Ultimate Knitting Guide spread out before you. It can be very hard to do even in utter silence with Vogue: The Ultimate Knitting Guide spread out in front of you. It took me about two hours with Vogue: The Ultimate Knitting Guide spread out in front of me. It will probably take even longer to take out. At least I know that it is worth the effort. It gives a very nice resilient edge that doesn't pull in or flare out. I *heart* sewn bind-offs. (The regular one is much easier than this one, just FYI.)

What's next? I'm thinking a square-ish short ribbed collar. Marnie showed me a very cute one last weekend that I may have to copy shamelessly.