Saturday Morning Tree Sweater Installation

After having shopped til we dropped at the Pleasanton Quilt Festival, the next morning my daughter and husband and I hot-footed it to the main street in downtown Livermore. Saturday September 27th was the day to install the sweater I'd knitted for the fiber art celebration called the Tree Sweater Forest. Here is a mostly pictorial synopsis of the installation process.

Robin and I are holding the completed tree sweater up to the tree it is to encircle. 

Yep. It is about the right size.

We wrap it around the tree. 

It is quite stretchy so it can be overlapped to shorten it if needed. 

I check to see that the pattern matches when I overlap the edges.

Stitch holders make great super size safety pins. 

I used them to hold the sweater in place while I seamed the edges closed.

The tree sweater must be at least 24" from the ground so it is out of range 

of any male dog who may want to claim it as his own. 

Robin and I do one more placement check.

I started by crocheting the seam closed so removal would be easier. 

I did not like the look so I switched to sewing with a yarn needle.

It was easier and the seam was almost invisible.

I cannot leave out the supervision step. 

My husband is behind me checking out that all is well.

There are just three more stripes to sew. 

I needed to tie off to add another length of yarn.

Robin helps me measure and cut off more yarn.

I need to use a ladder for the last bit up top.

Voila! One tree fully garbed in an Autumn Rainbow.

It appears as if the tree trunk is peeking out between each stripe.

This was a fun project.  I will remove it from the tree right before Thanksgiving. It will be donated to the Valley Humane Society as a comfort blanket for animals up for adoption. The finished dimensions were about 32" wide by about 48" tall. I call it German Shepherd size.

I still have enough of the yarn that I could make another afghan for my family at home. Do I want to do that? Nah! Been there. Done that. However, another tree sweater in another design next year... now that would be fun!