My favourite way to begin a Top Down garment is with the ribbed neckband. I’m not enamored with picking up stitches around the neck opening and would rather just jump right in and get going.
This is going to be a new Any Gauge project: a V-neck cardigan.
The Back of Neck in this type of Top Down tends to stretch. I have been experimenting with ways to make a firm edge across the Back of the Neck on the last row of the ribbed Neckband. Here it is.
Let me know if you try this. I think it’s working for me.
Walk away from knitting for a bit? No, no, no, of course not. You cast on something else.
I was thinking about a small project, but what jumped onto my needle was a shawl. Not a small project, sigh.
It wasn’t actually as straightforward as that. I had some navy, hand-dyed sock wool and cast on for socks. A small project, at least small in size, to carry around.
The yarn had cashmere in it, and after I knit the cuff, I thought maybe cashmere is sort of wasted on socks, so I ripped it out and here I am.
This is the Magic Symmetry Shawl, knit starting at the side with 3 stitches with increases worked on the leading edge.
This usually makes an asymmetric shape, but this is going to be symmetrical when it’s done, wider than it is tall. To my mind this makes it so much easier to wear.
I figured out a new stitch to add to the pattern. Doesn’t this show off the contrast colour?
I thought I would knit eyelets in the contrast colour rows. I worked [Yo, K2tog] and found I liked the wrong side better. So now I knit the right side row and on the wrong side row work [Yo, P2tog]. So happy with how this looks.
I’m stashbusting. I have quite a few 50g skeins of Shelridge 80/20 fingering wool and it’s going into a cardigan.
I’m going to work 3×3 stripes. Three colours, three rows of each. This is especially terrific if you are working back and forth. You’ll see why very soon.
Getting started is fairly straightforward. Three rows of each of the three colours: yellow, blue, and ending with the purple on the left side.
Now for the next stripe: Yellow.
On the left side, when I finish the purple stripe, the yellow yarn is ready to work. There is no other colour strand available. The yellow stripe will end on the right side. What colour is available to knit with on the right side? You got it. The blue is available.
Three more rows of blue finishes on the left, and the purple is there waiting to be worked.
Is this not perfect? Each time you finish a 3 row stripe, the next colour is there waiting in the wings for you to pick up and continue.
You can twist the waiting colour around the colour you are working with once during each stripe to keep the carries neat and tidy. You are carrying yarn up both front edges of your cardigan. I think this is a great advantage. I always worry if carrying the colours up only one side that that side will tighten up. This way they are even.
To add some extra interest to the 3×3 stripes, on a wrong side row, I knit one of the rows of each stripe to get some texture happening. It also cuts down on the amount of purling I have to do on this cardigan.
This little 4 year sized Family Crew Neck sat for quite a while because I didn’t know how to do the sleeves.
The colour fade yarn was great. I had already bought a second ball to do the sleeves.
I wound off the lime green, yellow and into the orange of the second ball of yarn.
I wound up all the orange into a separate ball. Then, I wound off some of that orange ball to make 2 equal sized balls. I knit one sleeve and then the other until the length of the orange in the sleeve was as close as I could get it to the body.
Then I did the same with the red and then again with the purple.
Yes, it was time-consuming, but I’m really happy with the result.
This is where knitting the Family Crew Neck or any top down knit comes into its own.
As it became increasingly obvious I would be very close on the amount of yarn I had left, I took some time to sort through my priorities. I did need the body to be long enough. I could deal with a sleeve modification.
So, I knit the sleeves to just before the cuffs and broke the yarn. If I ran out of yarn, I could rip them back to make them 3/4 length.
Then, I knit the body to the bottom border. I decided a split hem would serve me best at this point. I worked the front panel of the split hem. Not as long as I would like but the minimum amount. Broke the yarn again.
I’m sure you can see the theme here: knit, look at the ball of yarn I have left, work some more, stare harder at the little ball, make a decision and knit some more.
Here we go. This is the knitting merry-go-round. I just finished a large project: the Family Crew Neck. I hadn’t knit one for myself. Now I have one, yay! I was also knitting one for my grandson at the same time. I did quite a few blog posts about them: use the tag Family Crew Neck.
Two sweaters going at the same time, I know, craziness but both are finished now so … of course, I cast on another sweater! I can’t help myself. Maybe I need help?!
This is Shelridge Yarns 80/20 fingering in navy and is part of my 2024 knitting goal of adding fingering weight sweaters to my wardrobe. Now that spring is beginning I’m inspired to get going on this.
If you’re a sock knitter you know how this goes. Cast off a one sock, cast on another. Not to be outdone, I did that too. After a larger project, it’s satisfying to knit a smaller project, not that socks are especially small but they seem to be after a sweater.
This is Timber Yarns sock yarn. I love those stripes and because of them, I tried an afterthought heel. Not new exactly, but not a heel I usually like to do. I was somewhat surprised but it worked out great. I will do this again now that I tried them again.
Now I need to go to my local yarn store to get some more yarn. I’m going to show you how this Shallow V-neck Cardigan works as I go along, and navy is not going to photograph well enough to do that. Something thicker would be good for knitting a ‘companion’ second cardigan.
As I approach the bottom of the yoke, I work an extra increase beside the raglan increase ON THE FRONTS ONLY. Now I have added an extra stitch on both sides of the front. (The black slashes are where the extra increases are.) I usually do this for several rows or rounds.
Here’s a more obvious example on a sweater I’m knitting now. In Aran weight yarn (heavy worsted) you can see the increases clearly. I did quite a few because this is a cardigan and I didn’t want the dreaded button pull on the front.
The change from the last post is that at the same time I was working these extra increases on the fronts, I STOP INCREASING ON THE BACK. Can you do that? Just stop increasing? Yes you can.
This is all done very close to the bottom of your yoke. You get a little straight line on the back, very near the underarm, so no one can see it.
The bonus is that my back is now 2+” narrower than the front of my sweater.
2. The second bonus of working the extra increases beside the raglan increases on the front and not increasing on the back is that you are still increasing 8 stitches on every increase row or round. It doesn’t mess with the number of stitches you need at the bottom of the yoke.
You do have to work decreases down the sides of the front body between the largest point of your bust and your waist to take all or some of these extra front stitches away. Then begin your hip shaping.
Yes, shaping your sweaters does have lots of parts to it. Try one step at a time. You are the boss of your knitting.
I have definitely dug myself into a big hole with all of my WIPs. It’s a somewhat comfortable hole since I am sitting on a pile of knitting but I’m overwhelmed and discouraged.
It’s was a bad sign when I had to take the needle tips off of this project to knit something else. This is a Family Crew Neck for my grandson. Part of my procrastinating is that I’m not at all sure what to do with the sleeves. I have a second ball of this yarn for the sleeves but I’m wondering how to do the stripes on the sleeves so that they sort of match the body. Some more thinking is needed.
I grabbed the needles from that project to do an Any Gauge Raglan Pullover because I’m running a class right now and thought I should knit along with my students. I encouraged them to knit with worsted weight yarn or chunky yarn so they could get their pullovers done over the 6 weeks. I, of course, am knitting mine in fingering weight yarn. I feel like I am knitting furiously and getting nowhere. Sigh, I know. What was I thinking?!
Then there is the blog which you have been reading. I have wanted a Family Crew Neck for some time. I will be getting back to that soon. I have so much more to tell you about getting a good fit with your raglan.
You would think that three sweaters is enough to keep me busy. Then I cast on a hat. I knit the whole hat on the wrong size needle, ran out of yarn, pulled it out and am now on the redo with the correct needle. Not much more to say about that!
Am I finished? Apparently not.
For the month of February I am teaching a sock class. My first time sock students are knitting boot socks in worsted weight yarn. They will have a pair of socks done by the end of the month. I will, maybe, have one sock done past the heel with my sock yarn.
HOW DID THIS HAPPEN??? I hope you are in better control of your knitting. Cheers, Deb
What if … the raglan markers on your Top Down sweater were only a guideline for the size of your sleeve and not the exact size of the sleeve?
“Why don’t you knit sweaters for yourself?” I have asked this question of a lot of knitters. The answer, quite often, is that the sleeves never fit. A lot of knitting pattern sizes are based primarily on the measurement around your bust. If your bust measurement and your arm measurement don’t agree with the size chart the designer is using, then you are not getting a good fit.
This is one of the problems I wanted to solve in the adult sizes of my series of Any Gauge Raglan patterns. I have written these patterns for one person at a time – you. You don’t have to compare yourself to a size chart.
In these patterns, you take your bust measurement and arm measurement with a tape measure, and, after converting to the number of stitches, make the raglan yoke to these measurements (Bust + Arm + Arm). Yes, when you finish the yoke,it would fit you like a second skin.
Then you put the exact number of stitches for your arm on spare yarn for your sleeve.
Here is the bottom of my Family Crew Neck yoke with one set of sleeve stitches on spare (red) yarn.
My sleeve stitches on the spare yarn are inside the raglan markers.
In this case my sleeve stitches are 6 sts narrower (1.25″ narrower) than where the raglan markers would indicate. Whether the sleeve stitches end up inside or outside the raglan markers depends on where the markers are set up in the neckline and the size of your arm, of course.
But it fits like a second skin? How is that going to work?
Wait, there’s more. Cast on the number of stitches you need for the amount of ease you want on the body. It could be anywhere between 4″- 7″ or even more, if you wish. Cast on 1/2 the ease at one underarm and the other 1/2 at the other underarm.
Now this sweater body has been knit to your specific measurements at the bust and arm. Ease has been added. This sweater body will fit you and only you.
Deb Gemmell: Top Down, Gauge Free and more 