I've spent a lot of time explaining all of the many uses for gauge swatches. Today I'm going to talk about a project that doesn't need a lot of math, or gauge, but needs a little courage. It's not quite as frightening as cutting a steek, but scissors are involved.
I'm dedicating the project to Wilma Mankiller, who passed away on April 6, 2010. She deserves much more than any honor I can give her.
Note: As of this writing, I have not finished this yet. To see the final results and find out if this really worked, please visit the show's website at www.journalgazette.net/craftyliving.
If you want to choose-your-own adventure to a circle sweater, you can follow along with me.
You will need
- Yarn (the same amount as you would normally use for a sweater - I used 9 skeins of Encore by Plymouth Yarn, a worsted weight that is 75% acrylic and 25% wool)
- Needles, to go with your yarn
- scissors
- measuring tape
- a doily pattern or something else round and flat (I used a vintage doily pattern I found for free online
- an edging pattern, or the desire to make a lot of attached i-cord, or a strong desire to loosely cast off a whole lot of stitches (I used Cockleshell Edging from Barbara Walker's Second Treasury of Knitted Patterns)
Attached I-cord
Elizabeth Zimmerman "unvented" (her term) i-cord made with two double-pointed needles. It creates small, closed tube, imitating the look and structure of spool knitting, which uses a spool with pegs. To make it with knitting needles, cast on anywhere between 2 and 5 stitches, (although 3 to 4 seem to work the best) knit the stitches, without turning the work, slide them to the other end of the needle, and knit them again. Repeat many times, and give your work a little tug, and you will produce a knitted cord. Zimmerman called it idiot cord at first, I think because it is what you could make on accident if you got really mixed up on how to use a double-pointed needle. She later renamed it i-cord, to afford it some dignity, when she discovered it was so useful.
The Scoop from Meg Swansen
(She emailed me right back!)
"My ma did not invent Idiot-Cord, but learned to produce it when she was a kid - using a wooden spool with bent nails around the top. Applications for lengths of knitted cord were limited... she used it for reins when playing 'horsey'. Decades later, she figured out how to achieve the same result with two needles (changed the name to I-Cord as 'Idiot Cord was rather rude') and originated numerous variations: - Built in I-Cord - Applied I-Cord - I-Cord Buttonholes (Looped, Hidden and Tab) - I-Cord Corners - I-Cord Cast On and Cast Off - etc etc Joyce Williams came up with Braided or Cabled I-Cord and Blipless Applied I-Cord (for strongly CC). I came up with a few variations myself - as have other knitters over the years. Onward, Meg"
More from Me
To attach i-cord, you work in much the same way, but you attach it to live stitches you have already worked. At the end of each row of i-cord, instead of simply knitting the last stitch, you would knit 2 together with a live stitch from your work. In this way, you could cast off the edge of a sweater, or, for our purposes, the edge of a circle you will make into a sweater. I have used it for the top edge of a bottom-up triangular shawl. It made a very neat and sturdy edge.
Conversely, you could knit some i-cord, then pick up stitches from it and work perpendicular to the direction of the i-cord. I think I have seen a mitten pattern where the bottom of the mitten is started in this way.
Any Size, Any Gauge Circle Sweater
(a pdf of this pattern, with photos, is included on this page)
I started out by knitting up a doily pattern, on #8 needles, and with worsted weight yarn. I wanted cozy and warm, not lacy and delicate, so that's why I didn't use larger needles. You may choose the fabric drape and style you prefer by changing your needle size. I then continued on, extending the lines of the doily pattern, using yarn-overs and some decreases. My particular pattern had 7 sections to it instead of 8, so every other round, I added 7 stitches with yarn-overs and also had 7 sets of yarn-overs that were decreased away, and existed purely for decoration. I worked until I thought it was about 42" across, then I added two ridges of seamless in-the-round garter stitch, and a lacy edging around to close it off.
My chest measurement is 42" around, so I thought making the sweater at least 42" across (plus edging) would make it nice and full.
In theory, as long as you have room for your shoulders and a few more rounds, you could make the circle section pretty small. I will go on the record and say that mine is large. Enormous, in fact. Slightly over 4 feet across. I love it.
For the lace edging to end well, I had to be a bit sneaky. I didn't count and consider my stitches before I began the edging. When I was about halfway around the sweater, I divided my remaining stitches out into groups of 16, and discovered that I had about 11 left over at the end. I decided I didn't want to increase stitches to make it even, so I snuck in 11 groups of 17 stitches. If I finished a repeat of the pattern and an "extra" stitch was looking at me, I simply moved it from the right-hand to the left-hand needle and knit 2 together after I turned the work to continue. I don't think even I can tell where I did this and where I did not. I think the garter-stitch base of the pattern helped me. Another way to accomplish the same task would be to simply knit 3 together instead of 2 together on the last row of the pattern repeat.
Adding Sleeves
I somewhat-live-recorded my way through snipping for the sleeves, but it comes down to this:
1) Measure around the top of your arm to see how big your armhole needs to be.
2) Divide that number by 2.
3) Figure out how many stitches you need to get to the measurement in step 2, either by direct measurement on the circle or by taking a gauge swatch and doing arithmetic. I did both and split the difference.
4) Guess, then measure, where the center of each armhole should be. The exact position will depend on your pattern and preference. Make sure that the distance between the two armholes is not too large or too small. In my opinion, it can vary. On me, for example, I think it would work for my armholes to be anywhere from between 15" apart to 20" apart. Snip the center stitch and pull back until you have opened up enough stitches to equal what you discovered in step 3.
5) Pick up the live stitches. I picked up two stitches from each edge, to help make the corners neat.
6) Knit sleeves. After decreasing away the four extra stitches for the corners, I knit straight from the shoulder, in stockinette stitch, until the sleeves were long enough to reach my elbow.
7) To match the body, I knit 2 garter stitch ridges before completing the sleeve edging. Sleeve edging is optional, but since you have a smaller area, it's best to stop and consider if you have the correct number of stitches to make all of your edging in full repeats. My edging is 32 rows long, which means it uses 16 stitches of the sleeve for each repeat. Sixty-six does not divide evenly by 16, but 64 does. So, the row before I began the garter stitch ridges, I knit 31 stitches and knit 2 together twice to change my sleeve stitches from 66 to 64.
Interview
Wendy Knits graciously agreed to give up some of her lunchtime knitting time to talk with me. We talk about her knitting, her kitty, and her (three!) books. Our phone connection isn't as clear as usual, but I hope you bear with us. There is a strange echo sometimes and I truly don't know its source. We just changed phone systems at my office, and I hope it's just a one-time fluke.
Links
Seamless, no-purl, in-the-round garter stitch
Joyce Williams has a book and some other writings available here
Yarn amounts guide from Interweave Press
The Doily Pattern I Used
A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns
See Wendy Chart tutorial
2010 Uses for Gauge Swatches
Number 13: A swatch to test the pattern you have charted and a demonstration piece for the class you are teaching (it's what Wendy was knitting when we spoke).
