Sat 16 Nov 2013
The to-be embroidered sweater has been fully knit for several weeks now, but is still lingering in the UFO pile from lack of a zipper. It turns out that this particular shade of natural gray is almost impossible to match. The closest thing I could find locally was this one from our local Joann’s:
It wasn’t a great match, and stood out pretty boldly, even when pinned into place in the sweater. Then I heard about a site called ZipperShipper, and went there to look for other options. I bought a few, since it’s hard to tell what colors really look like when you shop online.
Still no perfect matches, but the second and third work pretty well. The brass is quite heavy, but it might be less noticeable once it’s sewn in.
The beige one is almost too light, more like a dress zipper than a sweater zipper. I have a feeling it wouldn’t be very sturdy, and such a small zipper pull might be annoying in a sweater-weight garment. I’m currently leaning toward the brass, even if it is a little heavy.
The next question is: where/how much to embroider? The whole point of knitting this sweater was to make a canvas for embroidery, but now that it’s nearly finished I’m thinking that I almost like it better plain (I knew from the beginning that this might happen…I like bold design elements on paper, but seldom actually wear them). Of course, embroidery can always be taken out again, so I might try putting some in and then see if I like it better with or without.
While I’ve been pondering, I spun up one of my Rhinebeck luxury fibers:
My 8 oz of  40/40/20 baby camel/wool/tussah yielded about 625 yards of heavy fingering weight 2-ply. It has a nice amount of bounce to it from the wool, but also has some shine. And did I mention that it’s soft?
No idea yet what this will become, but I’m pretty sure that it has to gain some color first. It hasn’t made its desires known yet, so it’s tucked away in the stash for now, waiting for just the right project.
You could start with something small, on the cuffs and collar. If you like that and want to add more, you can start small and keep adding.
Although there’s nothing wrong with a basic sweater, either.
Good luck.
I vote for the brass zipper. A classic hand knit sweater seems to always go better with ‘old’ looking things. I think a non-plastic zipper is perfect.
Maybe a Scandinavian type of design up the front edges of the zipper and around the collar would look nice? Though I may just be thinking that because I spent the last hour shoveling snow.
I like the 3rd zipper. Of course, you know me–I have 3 rhinestone zippers looking for a garment!!
Perhaps you could do a few embroidery samples on fine cloth and move them around on your sweater. Then you could always apply them to something else. Sometimes I get a little fiddly!!
I’m spinning BFL now and think I like other wools a lot better!!
I definitely like the darker zippers – they will recede rather than dominate. I won’t weigh in on the brass because I don’t trust my computer screen. But the sweater itself is great, and I like the idea of just a touch of embroidery.
There is no doubt that I love the new yarn!