Nifty Edge Treatment

The Daugava is off to its second start (actually, about the fifth but who's counting, eh?). This time I am doing a sleeve first.....and am I ever glad. At least it started with only 72 stitches, but I ripped it out several times today, not because of mistakes, but because I was making "design decisions" and kept changing my mind or thinking of better ways to do things.

I really like some of the changes. For one thing, I scrapped the PWYC border. Meg Swansen uses this partially purled border to prevent rolling, but after doing the whole sleeve border I decided it looked too messy. The purls distort the pattern more than I cared for so.....I frogged.....again. I am much happier with it now. I have done a 10 row k1, p1 facing with a very special turning treatment which I think looks fantastic.



I invented this turning edge, on my own, when fiddling with one of the samples I made before starting the project. The basis of it is a knitted-in braid common to Latvian mittens, but rather than use it in the main part of the knitting, I used it as an edging. Used as the turning row it makes a nice crisp turn with a decorative squared off edge. Oooo, I feel so creative and designer-ish.

Another change I made is to the increases. Rather than increase with one new stitch each side of a "seam-stitch" every 2 to 4 rows right from the start, I have increased a little more drastically, but evenly around the entire row, only in the plain rows between the patterns. This leaves the pattern motifs intact all the way around. Eventually, as the sleeve widens and the chosen patterns get deeper, I will have to revert back to increases every few rows with that standard "seam-stitch", but for now, while I can, I would like to keep the motifs intact....especially in the cuff/forearm area where they are more likely to be seen.