I made this sweater a few years ago (I bought the yarn at the last Stitches Market in Oakland, I think) and the pattern called for a Fun Fur collar. Well, if you know me, there is no way I am letting a bunch of fuzzy, furry stuff touch my face without me trying to rip my skin off in irritation. So, I decided to just do a simple 2×2 rib collar and I have hated it since I finished it. It never looked right, and I just didn’t know what to do to fix it, but vowed if I ever figure it out, that I would rip out the collar and re-do it. I even have saved the leftover yarn because I was sure the collar would need to be longer, I just didn’t know what to do to make it right.

Well, now I know. I took Maureen Mason-Jamieson’s class called Collar Obedience Training and now have the skills to make a nice collar on my purple sweater. (Just as soon as I finish Kyoto. I swear. I think.) She provides instruction in creating a collar stand, then some strategically placed increases that basically force the collar to stand up, roll over, and point.
You start with a homework swatch of a little cardigan sweater top – a back and two sides. At the end of the class, you have a lovely collar that just sits there all perky by itself. Amazing.
She even threw in another technique which I may use on the very same sweater, since I steeked it. She showed how to enclose an edge by picking up stitches on both sides of the garment edge, then joining to form a single edge. I have also not really liked my button band, and even bought new buttons, so I think this is my chance to get rid of some of the bulk on the front of the sweater and replace it with … different bulk, but much better looking.

Ms. Mason-Jamieson shared freely and asked lots of questions to get us thinking. She does really want you to follow along though, to keep things moving so everyone can get to the same point. She didn’t expect that everyone would finish, and I am not sure everyone did, but most people were able to get to the point of Aha! where you see the collar starting to flip. It takes a lot of fabric to make a collar long enough to look good, which was what I suspected all along. It was great to find out how much and what to do to get that nice flip.