Following up on the last post, you may find the following handy: the Craft Yarn Council publishes sizing standards. Here are standards for babies and children.
As I said previously, it’s like knitting two washcloths and adding sleeves. However, don’t forget to give the little guy some room at the neck–a round neck an inch deep will be plenty.
When I developed my sweater design method, I couldn’t imagine using anything besides knitting a one-piece sweater, a top-down circular sleeve, and 3-needle bind off for my shoulders. I mentioned Avocet B by Berroco in my last post–here is a pattern that kicks all three methods to the curb.
Knitting in the round–well, it’s a cardigan. I can knit the body in one piece…but do I want to? It has implications for the sleeves (see below).
The shoulder seams: short rows in garter stitch don’t look so hot. I’ve played around with Japanese short rows, which seem to be the least of all the possible evils. So binding off the shoulder seams and grafting may be the best way to go here.
Top-down, circular sleeves. Hmmm, knitting garter stitch in the round means knitting one row, purling one row. Kind of defeats the fun of knitting in the round.
So I may want to work the sleeves flat, which means one of two things:
I knit the body in pieces, seam the shoulders, pick up the sleeve stitches on the flat, opened body. I would knit the sleeves flat, then seam the sides and seam.
Knit the body in one piece, knit the sleeve flat, seam the sleeve, and then sew it into the body as a tube. Geez, I hate that one already.
Live and learn. I will still use my system to ensure a good fit. Just not sure it really will be next up on the needles. I’ve started to update my Ravelry account, and the ghosts of projects past are starting to haunt me.
This is Part 2 on swatches and stitch gauge. In this video I knit a flat swatch and block both swatches. Knowing your stitch gauge is critical to the success of your sweater, whether you’re designing it yourself or using someone else’s pattern. Ask around–the more experienced the knitter, the bigger the swatch they’ll knit. Think of the time you spend knitting a swatch as an investment in the success of your sweater.
After you’ve taken your measurements, you need to know your stitch gauge. The sweater I demonstrate uses both circular and flat knitting, so I demonstrate both kinds of swatches, both flat and circular–your stitch gauges may be different depending on which type of knitting you use. This is Part 1, Knitting a Circular Swatch. In Part 2 I demonstrate a flat swatch and blocking.
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