How to Knit a Feckin' Sweater
How to Knit a Feckin' SweaterI have a specific sweater structure in mind, but it isn't well represented on the Internet. I'm scrounging around for video tutorials and poring painfully over Barbara G. Walker's Knitting from the Top (1972). The style in mind: top-down sweater with set-in sleeves. (Or modified drop shoulder, as a back-up.)
(10/13/23): I've drawn a little map of what I think this will entail.
Helpful Resources so far:There are different ways to knit this sweater: in pieces and sew it together afterwards (my example sweater was made this way) and in the round. There are two ways to knit this sweater in the round: top-down and bottom-up. I don't want to knit it bottom-up, because I want to try it on as I'm knitting it. This is also the reason I don't want to knit it in pieces (in addition to my adversion to purling entire rows in Fair Isle). I want to knit it top-down.
The problem is, I can't find much on the web about knitting a top-down sweater that doesn't have the raglan shoulders or the circular yoke. I'd like a well-fitted sweater like the one I have, whose shoulder stitches point down instead of diagnoally (raglan) or circularly (yoke). Going to ask Chat GPT (chat, j'ai pété). Will report back.
Complaints-- front is too puffy. Should've used half the collar stitches for the back and half for the front, instead of the 1/3 and 2/3 I did use (respectively). This might also fix the problem I have of uneven side widths-- the front side is wider than the back.
Maybe I should do short row shaping in the back? I'll try the different stitch division first next time.
Method-- CO 24, Norwegian. Knit the collar (k1,1p) for 2 rows. Just a rib; nothing fancy. After the end of the two rows, knit 4 stitches in pattern. Place these 4 and the last 4 of the last row (so the eight all next to each other, split by the tail/row-end) on their own needle. The other 16 stitches get moved to their own two needles-- 8 on each-- and hang out there for a bit.
Method, continued-- CO 4, all in a line, using the k1-but-put-it-on-the-needle method for each. At the end of this little row, turn the work and purl these new 4 stitches and the 8 from the collar. On the other side, CO 4 stitches the same way. Turn work; knit across; turn work; purl across. Counting from the wearer's right shoulder, there should be 11 rows of stockinette down the back.
Method, continued-- Move up to the top of the right shoulder and pick up 4 stitches from the shoulder flap. (I picked up 5, to close the lil gap, and then knit them together the first chance I got.) Then I kinda did a k1, slip to left, turn work, purl back, turn work, knit (not slipping the first stitch), stop at the gap, knit 2 more, then slip one back and rinse & repeat. It was less of a science and more of a crazed chase to see what my half-baked, intuition-based plan would look like. And the answer is: not bad.
Method, continued-- I kept up the pattern until I had 2 unadulterated stitches left until the middle of the collar. Once I got to them, I knit them and then knit all the way across to the end of the other shoulder. Then I did the same short-row-type-beat until reaching the same point in the collar again. Technically, I only had 1 unadulterated stitch left somehow, but I'm not sweatin' it. (The sweater sweats for me.) I knit until the rows looked even (I folded it along the prime meridian to see), and then I knitted one side and purled the other until the front and back sides were the same length. Then I knit around in the round for 2 rows. Counting from the wearer's right shoulder (not including the pick-up row), there are 12 rows of stockinette on the front before the in-the-round thing started. Counting from the left shoulder, there are 11 rows of stockinette in the front before the two rows of in-the-round knitting.
Next time: split the collar stitches evenly between back and front. Also, try a lil shaping in the back. Not too much. Lastly, take better notes about how you're doing the short rows.
Maybe it'd be better if I just focused on incorporating the front better. Like, work on making the stockinette lines more vertical instead of curved. Only problem is, I have the same number of stitches in the front as I do in the back, after having finished the back increases but before starting the front pickups at the shoulder. How do I make those numbers equal by the time the collar part is finished? Hmmm...
*My specs, by the way: 100% merino wool yarn; superwash; bulky (yarn weight 5, not 6); >1 ply; < $12; 100 g (or 50 g if it's a good deal). --2:47 p.m., 10/29/2023. I have to leave for work.
-->Yarn Status Update (11/1): It's been shipped. Yippee!!
-->Another Yarn Update (11/13): Bought more yarn ('Forest') on Thursday (11/9); it shipped the next day (11/10); it's arriving today (Monday, 11/13)! Super excited.
Dr. Biesel said today (11/28/23) that brioche cuffs (an idea I had) is a good idea, because it would be stretchy enough to push up your arms if you need to roll up your sleeves.
I've been struggling with doing everything at once (i.e. knitting the right shape while also securing it to the collar), so I've been thinking of knitting in parts instead and securely seaming them up afterwards. I found this blog post where someone shares their process (top-down set-in, first by parts and then joined in the round).
I also found this pattern, but I think it may be too complicated for me. Watch that bite me in the butt when I need more direction later on and the first pattern here doesn't give it to me.
Found this pattern, which seems very promising.
I went to a library group of knitters and talked with a veteran about set-in sleeve sweaters. She said that though they're tradidionally knitted in pieces and seamed together afterwards, it's becoming a thing to knit them seamlessly, top-down-- the way I want to. It's a new development. She also said that it's not hard to knit. but hard to design, since the shape of the sleeves is a curve and not rectangular. Hard to size up or down without doing more math than usual. Anyway-- that's hwy I'm thinking of buying a pattern, as long as it's one I can rely on heavily and not try to modify. It would be difficult to teach myself, and it's hard to find for free unless I do so in modifications and swatches. (Oh, the dreaded swatches.)