Rubber Bands & Knitting

The rows and rows of seed stitch have become quite a big field of possibility.  Boredom has set in and progress is delayed.  This long vest is made from ShiBui heichi and will ultimately have almost 500 g of the stuff hanging from my shoulders.  I got to fretting if that weight would pull downward and stretch the arm holes.  I don't mind if the total length stretches as that as already been shortened by one inch due to my being short.

What to do?  Is it possible to stop fretting and just get on with the endless planting of seed stitch?  What came to mind was the need to test the weight of only the vest and pre-stretch the arm holes without blocking an incomplete item.  Now, readily do I admit that this idea might be anathema to Master Knitters, but I did not think of it on my own and might not be totally to blame for suggesting it. 

What we have here is two rubber bands (actually hair bands donated by daughter #1 to the cause - this is all her inventive contraption) that hold the circulars together and allow hanging from a hanger without fear of a mishap and loss of stitches.  Check out the chord of the circs and you see that it is pulling downward.

Way down at the bottom of the closet are the yarn balls that correspond to the fronts and back of the vest. 

Everything is nice and tidy with no pressure except for the weight of the garment. . .

In the middle of the rubber bands and the yarn balls is the vest.  This is as close as we could get to having only the weight of the garment itself impacting the stretch on the arm holes.  It is kind of like "dry blocking" if that concept actually exists. 

The goal is to mimic wearing and test out what will happen by the end of the day - or several days later.  Based on our dry hang test,  I will be deleting almost an inch from the pattern specified depth of the arm holes. 

My guess is that I will get raked over the proverbial coals on this one.  I'm sure that all manner of folks will tell me this does not work or it should not be done or that I have finally lost it and should resign from the knit world.    It's OK.  I saved about 30 minutes of knitting and those arm holes are customized to my body - - not some standard. 

Rubber bands & knitting.   It's a good thing in my book of tricks.