Has anyone ever done smocking on a fine-gauge knit?

"spampot" skrev i melding
...
My mother asked me about shortening the sleeves on a lovely cashmere
cardigan she was given. Like me, she ends up rolling up a lot of
sleeves. Unfortunately this is a fine-gauge knit with a delicate
edging. I was thinking of turning up the sleeves on the inside, but
it occurred to me that some kind of smocking for a few inches might
shorten the sleeves more decoratively. Has anyone ever tried this?

Shampot, I am not sure what smocking is,
but if you mean a fold some place on the arm; I have done it.
I made a 2 cm. fold on the "over arm" a bit over the elbow,
used machine , and the result was well.
That was on a lambs wool sweater.
Today I would, may be, have done something decorative out of it,
using beads, for example,
and may be used the same beads some place at the "body" too.
But THEN the fashion was very functionel, so BEADS was far out of the
question!LOL!
AUD ;-))

In article ,
spampot wrote:
My mother asked me about shortening the sleeves on a lovely cashmere
cardigan she was given. Like me, she ends up rolling up a lot of
sleeves. Unfortunately this is a fine-gauge knit with a delicate
edging. I was thinking of turning up the sleeves on the inside, but it
occurred to me that some kind of smocking for a few inches might shorten
the sleeves more decoratively. Has anyone ever tried this?

I haven't, but I have seen stitch patterns that were effectively smocking
knitted in. And anyway, smocking is done in such a way that if it doesn't
work, you can take it out with no harm done.

But I'm not sure whether it would shorten the sleeve enough to do what is
needed. It might take a lot of rows.

=Tamar

In article , spampot
wrote:

My mother asked me about shortening the sleeves on a lovely cashmere
cardigan she was given. Like me, she ends up rolling up a lot of
sleeves. Unfortunately this is a fine-gauge knit with a delicate
edging. I was thinking of turning up the sleeves on the inside, but it
occurred to me that some kind of smocking for a few inches might shorten
the sleeves more decoratively. Has anyone ever tried this?

I take it that this is a store bought cardigan. Are the sleeves steeked,
was the knitted material cut and sewn. if so, would it be possible to
take the sleeve out and shorten it at the armhole and sew it with your
machine back in. What do you steekers, think would that work

Els

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hate spam not welcome

| On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 09:51:45 -0500, spampot wrote:

My mother asked me about shortening the sleeves on a lovely cashmere
cardigan she was given. Like me, she ends up rolling up a lot of
sleeves. Unfortunately this is a fine-gauge knit with a delicate
edging. I was thinking of turning up the sleeves on the inside, but it
occurred to me that some kind of smocking for a few inches might shorten
the sleeves more decoratively. Has anyone ever tried this?

Haven't done it personally, but I have seen patterns for it in machine
knitting books. Some used a stitch pattern to aid the process and some just
did the smocking on plain stockinet. There were some that looked like
smocking that were just tuck stitch patterns, with no true smocking as
well. Thing is, smocking will draw up the fabric in width as well as
length, and that could be a problem depending where you do it on a sleeve.

Helen "Halla" Fleischer, Fantasy & Fiber Artist
http://home.covad.net/~drgandalf/halla/
Balticon Art Program Coordinator http://www.balticon.org

Els van Dam wrote:
In article , spampot
wrote:


My mother asked me about shortening the sleeves on a lovely cashmere
cardigan she was given. Like me, she ends up rolling up a lot of
sleeves. Unfortunately this is a fine-gauge knit with a delicate
edging. I was thinking of turning up the sleeves on the inside, but it
occurred to me that some kind of smocking for a few inches might shorten
the sleeves more decoratively. Has anyone ever tried this?


I take it that this is a store bought cardigan. Are the sleeves steeked,
was the knitted material cut and sewn. if so, would it be possible to
take the sleeve out and shorten it at the armhole and sew it with your
machine back in. What do you steekers, think would that work

Els


Oh, Els, I'd be TERRIFIED to do that!! I've never steeked in my life
and to experiment with a cashmere sweater...no way!

Aud wrote:

"spampot" skrev i melding
...

My mother asked me about shortening the sleeves on a lovely cashmere
cardigan she was given. Like me, she ends up rolling up a lot of
sleeves. Unfortunately this is a fine-gauge knit with a delicate
edging. I was thinking of turning up the sleeves on the inside, but
it occurred to me that some kind of smocking for a few inches might
shorten the sleeves more decoratively. Has anyone ever tried this?


Shampot, I am not sure what smocking is,
but if you mean a fold some place on the arm; I have done it.
I made a 2 cm. fold on the "over arm" a bit over the elbow,
used machine , and the result was well.
That was on a lambs wool sweater.
Today I would, may be, have done something decorative out of it,
using beads, for example,
and may be used the same beads some place at the "body" too.
But THEN the fashion was very functionel, so BEADS was far out of the
question!LOL!
AUD ;-))

Beads are an interesting idea. I'll keep that in mind.

You can see an example of smocking he

http://www.mansew.com/graphics/smocking.jpg

It is a traditional decorative sewing technique for gathering material
in a dress or shirt (hence the term smock, for a dress with that sort of
stitching...it used to be used for a farmer's or workman's loose shirt
with smocking across the shoulder or chest).

One problem with that method is that if you take it up too much at the arm
hole edge the sleeve might just end up too tight there. I would think you
would be farther ahead to do that about 1 or 2 inches up from the edge at
the wrist. If you could serge the raw edge at that point, I think it might
work.

--
Star love,
Norma
PM OES
If God brings you to it, He will see you through it.
"spampot" wrote in message
...
Els van Dam wrote:
In article , spampot
wrote:


snip


I take it that this is a store bought cardigan. Are the sleeves
steeked,
was the knitted material cut and sewn. if so, would it be possible to
take the sleeve out and shorten it at the armhole and sew it with your
machine back in. What do you steekers, think would that work

Els

Beads are an interesting idea. I'll keep that in mind.

You can see an example of smocking he

http://www.mansew.com/graphics/smocking.jpg

It is a traditional decorative sewing technique for gathering material
in a dress or shirt (hence the term smock, for a dress with that sort
of stitching...it used to be used for a farmer's or workman's loose
shirt with smocking across the shoulder or chest).

Thank you, Spampot!
We call it Waffle Seam! In my children I had it on several of my
dresses,
to keep the girth together over the chest, and then the skirt got the
girth.
Aud ;-))

Thank you, Spampot!
We call it Waffle Seam! In my children I had it on several of my
dresses,
HAHAHA!!! I hope you understood, I ment In my CHILDHOOD!!!!
aud ;-))

In article ,
Norma wrote:
One problem with that method is that if you take it up too much at the arm
hole edge the sleeve might just end up too tight there. I would think you
would be farther ahead to do that about 1 or 2 inches up from the edge at
the wrist. If you could serge the raw edge at that point, I think it might
work.

But it has a delicate fancy edge. The idea of sewing in a small tuck
could work. If the seam is just above the fancy edge, it could look like
a deliberate design element.

=Tamar