Month: November 2024

To Steek or Not to Steek

Steeks, scary!!! I know, scissors and knitting don’t usually mix. I’m doing it anyway.

I’m doing my armholes as steeks so I can knit round and round and round. I have knit the shoulders so they are wide enough. This pullover is going to have 10″/25cm of ease so the Front and Back of this chunky weight version for my daughter, are both 21″/53cm wide.

Here’s how I start my steek. At the end of the shoulders I cast On 5 sts for the steek pathway.

Now I knit round and round. Yay. I think I will make the armholes around 8-9″/20-23cm deep.

I’m so happy and relaxed. Isn’t this yarn fun? It’s King Cole Hedgerow Chunky. I’m loving the stripes.

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

deb.gemmell on instagram

Short Rows to lower the Front

Short Rows are the best. To drop the front of your neckline you basically work back and forth, working more rows across and Back of Neck and never working across all the Front stitches. Every time you turn from the right side to the wrong side at the end of a short row, you create a gap.

Different kinds of short row systems are all about how to close these gaps.

When you cast on for this neckband you cast on many more stitches on the front. The short rows I use end with a decrease: SSK, K1, Turn OR P2tog, P1, Turn (if you knit cuff down heel flap socks you will recognize this short row system). The decreases take care of all those extra Front stitches.

Now the fun part begins, not that knitting short rows isn’t fun, because it totally is.

To knit the shoulders, simply knit round and round, working an increase before and after each of the shoulder markers. That’s an increase of 4 stitches every round until you reach the desired width. That’s the contiguous way.

Almost to my desired width on this chunky weight one. The Short Rows on the worsted weight version are complete so round and round I go. I’m so excited to see it grow. Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

deb.gemmell on instagram

Contiguous Drop Shoulder, The Beginning

I can’t sit still for long. I have another sweater to knit. This time I’m going to redo one that I have tried before but not to my total satisfaction.

This is a over-sized drop shoulder with contiguous shoulders. You can see the slope that the contiguous line creates. The great thing is that once the V-neck is completed it’s knit round and round, not flat for the back and flat for the front.

So I tried again and thought I had figured out an easier way to get it started.

The neckband done. This is going to be a crewneck worked with short rows to drop the front.

Then I tried out a new idea. You can see that the slope coming down the shoulder is w-a-y too steep. The second slope is much better. So that’s good information. Also the amount of drop in the crewneck was too much.

So that got ripped back to the neckband. No problem, no tears, it’s just part of the deal.

I started again with a shallower crewneck drop and the flatter shoulder slope.

Now I’m off to the races. Just knit round and round until I reach the width I want it to be. How easy is that!

Let me tell you a little about it.

I’m going to offer the recipe for this pullover for free. Once I have my short rows tested I will post it and update it as we go along. This is an Any Gauge pattern. I’m knitting one in chunky weight and a second one in worsted weight. I will be figuring it out as I go along. Do you want to knit along with me?

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-free patterns by Deb

Deb.gemmell on instagram

Socks, let me count the ways

Do you knit socks? I do and now it’s my in-between project while I contemplate my new sweater.

I’m teaching a traditional cuff-down flap heel sock class. They are knitting a worsted weight pair and I am trying to get ahead of them with two sock yarn socks.

The Naked Sheep Fibre Co. sock yarn.

I have 3 students working with double pointed needles (that surprised me – I didn’t think that many people still used them), one student with Magic Loop and another student with a 9″ circular. It makes things interesting when we get to the flap heel!

Cascade Heritage sock yarn. Men’s size (Christmas knitting).

I haven’t mastered the 9″ circular yet. Maybe I’ll pass on those.

What’s your favourite heel?

I’ve done two pairs with after thought heels which I thought went best with this striped wool.

Timber Yarns wool.

I must admit that’s it for me. Two pairs were enough.

My favourite is the short row heel, toe up or cuff down. This is a double wrap short row heel. I also love the shadow short row heel.

This is on the wild side. The Over Easy Sock by Holli Yeoh. This sock is knit flat and the bottom of the foot is attached to the top of foot as you go. I love that I can use my left over odd balls for the top of the foot. I messed up the heel but I’m ready to give it another shot.

There are many more ways of knitting socks. Do you have a favourite? Do you know of a wild and wonderful sock I should try?

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Deb.gemmell on instagram