Lambswool Sweater

I finished this machine knit lambswool sweater today.  It is a pattern from Nina Miklin which I have been making for my husband for over a decade, but this is the first time I have followed the instructions in Nina Miklin's three Knit to Finish Booklets which I recently bought.

It took me an age to plough through her knitting and finishing technique instructions as they span the three booklets,  but the finished results were worthwhile.  The techniques have developed my finishing skills and I will be using what I've learned in machine knitting projects to come, not just for Nina's patterns.

The yarn is 2/16s industrial oiled lambswool, ribs knitted on my Passap Duomatic 80 and the rest on my Knitmaster 360 single bed machine.  I knit the single rib with two strands of the lambswool and the rest with one strand.  This makes a more substantial rib for a man's sweater.  I also ran a strand of YLI invisible thread in the rib zigzag row, the 2 CX rows and the lst rib row to strengthen the edge.  Sometimes I run a thread of ordinary sewing cotton instead of the YLI if I have the right colour.

The knitting looks almost too loose as it comes off the machine due to the oil used in the spinning, but once washed in detergent the lambswool becomes soft and it fills out the knitting.  I needs a steam press to make it look good.  This is not a sweater which goes into the washing machine.