Swaddling

The sleeves and shoulder are progressing well, far better than I expect it would. Now all I can hope for is that my sailing and racing skills will improve in time to equal my artistry with knitting needles. The Laser is a frightfully powerful sailboat, and I am sure it will take time and practice before I become comfortable with it. Sailing a Laser, like knitting, takes diligence and practice before you can master it.

As you can see, one sleeve and the shoulder is done. Now I am working down the other sleeve. You may notice that I've stopped cabling the central pattern and just knitted it straight. That stockinette portion is my steek ~ where I will cut it open, pick up stitches and knit the neckband. Never fear, I will have someone take pictures of this process so you can see how I do it.

The piece is getting long, floppy and unmanageable, especially when you are knitting it back and forth. My solution to this annoyance is to swaddle the piece.

Swaddling is simply taking a cloth and tying up your work in a nice bundle while leaving the working end free so you can continue knitting. The compact bundle is much easier to maneuver rather than having the work sprawled all over the place. I've swaddled just about everything; the body and sleeves of a sweater while working on the yoke, scarves, lace projects, etc. The bottom line is that if the knitted work starts becoming unwieldy, then swaddle it.

Swaddling your knitting also has the added benefit of keeping it clean while you are working on it. The cloth used for tying up the bundle would protect the knitting from pilling and/or felting as you constantly shift it around while working on it.

All in all, it is a very simple and effective solution! I hope you will consider swaddling in your future projects to keep your work neat and sharp looking.