So far, every sweater or vest created by the Churchmouse design team has been knit in pieces and sewn together. Several customers have asked why.
Kit says, simply, it’s what she prefers. Among the many reasons:
She prefers the vertical structure offered by side seams, and the way the fabric hangs. Plus she finds seams offer a clear guide to true up any twist when blocking.
Kit takes her knitting everywhere she goes and finds that individual pieces are easier to transport and less cumbersome to work on. Being short, she isn’t fond of having the whole sweater dragging in her lap! Also, smaller pieces put less weight on your wrists.
She’s also noticed over the years that a lot of knitters have a hard time keeping their tension consistent after they split a circular body to work the front and back separately above the armholes. This is where stockinette stitch changes from “knit every row,” to “knit a row, purl a row”. Many knitters see a difference between their knit rows and their purl rows; often the change in fabric texture can be quite noticeable.
And if knitting with a self-striping or shading yarn, there will be a less obvious shift in the depth of the stripes above the armholes, and in the sleeves, because the rows are more similar in length.
Kit likes that starting with the back (half the body), she gets good information about how it’s going sooner so is able to make tweaks as she progresses (before she gets so far that she doesn’t want to go back and fix it!). Plus the sideseams give you a nice spot to fix minor fit issues later.
And when every row isn’t worked all the way around, she likes getting that little thrill of finishing a row more often!
If you limit yourself to in-the-round or top-down sweaters to avoid seaming --whether because you don’t like your results or just don’t enjoy it, you might be limiting your access to certain projects and designers.
There are a lot of instances where top-down is just the ticket: yoked sweaters. Except Ganseys, of course, which are knitted in the round from the bottom up.
Of course, for every preference (or perhaps quirk!), there will be countless knitters and designers who hold the opposite, or at least a differing opinion. Another reminder that there’s no one “right way” in knitting!
This is not to say you’ll never see a sweater in the round from the Churchmouse Studio. In the meantime, there are countless wonderful designers who offer this option.
