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It won’t be long now before the recipient is snug in their wee Cria! Now that all the knitting is done its time to work on the finishing touches. Spending a bit of time on the final details can make such a huge difference and give you a really beautiful finished sweater.
Whether you’ve made faux or real pockets, use a new piece of yarn to sew up, and not the ends hanging out of your knitting.
Faux pockets
Use whip stitch to sew down the small flap, and sew up the small gaps at each side.
Real pockets
Sewing up the pocket is a little fiddly. I found it easiest to work from the right side and turn the inside of the pocket out. Fold the pocket flat in half, and sew the top of the pocket to the bottom of the garter stitch edge.
Then seam up the edges of the pockets and sew the top corners of the inside to the sides of the pocket opening.
Weave in all the ends. At the underarms if you notice that there are small holes at the edges of the picked up stitches close them up at the same time you weave in the ends.
I haven’t chosen buttons yet, so I’m blocking the cardigans first. I use safety pins to mark where the buttons will go, it helps to make sure they’re in the correct place and they are evenly spaced.
Blocking garments is just as important as blocking shawls, although the results aren’t quite as dramatic. Blocking washes the fabric you’ve been handling and stuffing into your bag, evens out the stitches or plumps them up. Hopefully you wet blocked your swatch so you won’t get any unpleasant surprises. If you have Little Red in the City the blocking information is on pages 78 – 81. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee wrote a great post a few months ago Blocking a Little Sweater, and if you aren’t convinced blocking is necessary I suggest giving it a read.
The basics of sweater blocking: soak in lukewarm water, squish out excess water, lay flat to dry, adjust to measurements given. And that’s it — admire your work and enjoy! We’d love to see in progress pictures as well as finished sweaters in the Ravelry thread, there are some beautiful wee Cria’s there already!
