Sewing More Sweaters

The instant gratification of sewing compared to knitting cannot be beat. I made myself a sweater yesterday:

This was a “two yards for $6” remnant from the Walmart rack. I don’t want to overload my closet with black and white again—it was all I could find in a retail world of muddy earth tones before I started sewing my own clothes—but I need practice sewing fine-gauge sweater knits and this was intended to be a wearable muslin. I measured the gauge at about 15 stitches per inch, much finer than anything I would ever knit by hand. I run too hot these days to wear sweaters heavier than this. Fiber content is polyester (?) with some rayon. That’s a guess, because the label says only “Fibers of undetermined content.”

The pattern is the much-hacked Burda 6315. The bottom front is curved, which helps the entire sweater to hang properly, but it does look a bit weird in this horizontal print. I need to press the hem. I ironed some knit stay tape to the bottom edge before hemming the sweater on the coverstitch machine, just to keep the edge from stretching out of shape, and that worked nicely.

[I need to spend a few hours at Macy’s or Nordstrom looking at construction details because I am not always sure that my methods are the best ones to use. The coverstitch hem looks fine, but I am curious to know how something like this is done in RTW.]

I feel more confident, now, cutting into my two new fine-gauge sweater knits. The second one arrived yesterday:

This fabric is another sweater knit with some magenta in the print:

I have one more sweater knit on its way from Cali Fabrics along with the teal-and-black wool tweed. All of these sweater knits will probably become some version of Burda 6315, although I might change the neckline to a cowl. Or I could use the Toaster Sweater pattern. We’ll see.

I also made up my class samples for my class this week. I learn so much from this process because I have to think through what I am doing and how best to explain it to my students.

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I have a new piano technician coming on Tuesday to tune the baby grand. Years ago, I had a local guy named Frank tune my piano. Frank played euphonium in the community band and he knew I played the trombone, so he would bring low brass recordings with him and after he finished tuning the piano, we would sit and drink tea and listen to them. Frank also had a gift for making my piano sound wonderfully rich. Sadly, he died of leukemia a few years ago. The tuner I have been using since then is adequate, but he doesn’t play music and I have not been happy with the sound of my piano. I have a Yamaha and I chose it specifically because it had a bright sound that I wanted, but “bright” is not the same as “tinny” and mine leans tinny, especially in the upper register.

If you think I am choosy about how my piano sounds, you should read the book Grand Obsession by Perri Knize. Whoa.