Tag: twin stitches

A Do-over for the Family Crew Neck and a new Circular Yoke beginning.

I had a oops. I didn’t guess correctly on my needle size to get the gauge I wanted for my Family Crew Neck. If I was a smart person I would have notes on the needle sizes I have used before for this yarn, but … no notes. So I guessed. The gauge isn’t even close to what I wanted. So my first beginning of this Family Crew Neck for my grandson is toast.

Say goodbye to this one, it’s way too big. The gauge is closer to 5 sts/1″ and I was looking for 6 – 6 1/2 sts /1″.

New start.

This is obviously working great. I got the gauge I wanted by going down a couple more needle sizes and voila, stripes are appearing like magic.

Here’s my weekly update.

Because I can’t just knit just one sweater, I’m also knitting a Circular Yoke for myself. I started with an I-Cord 24″ long. I think this is a fairly good size for the neck opening. The I-cord idea came to me because I didn’t want to knit a swatch. I could knit the I-cord to the length I wanted, gauge doesn’t matter, it’s the length I needed. Don’t you sometimes just want to dive in? I do most of the time.

Once I picked up stitches around the I-cord I worked short rows using these Twin Stitches. Here’s a close up video of them.

The complete round where you have to close those last gaps from the back and forth short rows, is so much better with these Twin Stitches.

I can’t wait to get going on my 1-round stripes. I’m going to use the helical stripe method. Have you tried this?

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free knitting patterns by Deb

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Bust Darts, Top Down

Why are the fronts of women’s sweaters the same width as the back? Aren’t there two very good reasons why there should be a little more room on the front? You could work two different sizes to fix this but it needs quite a bit of fiddling to get it right. There is an easier way.

You need the extra room exactly where you need it, right? You know where. Not in the upper chest and neckline which could happen if you work two different sizes. Not below the bust either.

Here’s one of my solutions. I used on my latest Any Gauge Raglan Pullover. When working Top Down you can add an extra set of stitches to the Front of the Body starting just under the arm, after the Great Divide.

Can you see a faint line coming out of my underarm at an angle? Here, let me highlight it.

It’s not very visible. The increases are worked on every round. Each increase is worked beside the last one, working from the underarm toward the centre of the front. I added 6 extra bust stitches on each side of the Front, worked the rounds straight down past the largest part of my bust and then began working decreases at the sides of the Front every 4 rounds to get rid of some of these stitches (not all of them because, with Covid, the belly is a little larger than before!!).

I used Twin Stitches. They are the stitches used in the Shadow Short Row system which, if you don’t get rid of the double stitches (the twin stitches) as you would when working short rows, these twin stitches can become increases. It’s magic.

Here’s my video to show you how: Bust Dart for Top Down Pullover using TWK

This is how you work a Twin Stitch. If you’ve been following me for any amount of time, you’ve seen this before. I discovered this while working on the Need A Circular Yoke book. Have you tried this?

Stay safe and keep on keeping on, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

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