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.
Twist stitch patterns are perfect for adding into a sweater. They don’t affect your stitch count so you can just plug them anywhere you want. I put this pattern down the middle of the front of this top down pullover. I will also add this pattern to each side of the body. I might even add them into my cuffs. Why not? I just can’t get enough of them.
Twisted stitches are a two stitch cable without the cable needle. Don’t you love that!
Progress is being made on my vest version of the Build A Bigger V cardigan, and yes I am knitting like a crazy person. The Front is knit as a pullover. Nice and easy since it’s just the Back again without the beginning triangle at the neck. Done.
Now I have to attach them together so I can knit out to the edge of my shoulder.
Both the Front and Back have a 2 stitch I-cord worked along each edge. I’m going to use those I-Cord stitches for the pick up. Hang on, it’s a tricky ride.
Ta, da. Phew, done. Not hard to do. It’s just lots and lots of stitches.
It definitely feels like this year needs something new. So I have given myself a challenge: videos. The first one is purling back backwards (near the bottom of this post).
I’m ok with amateur-hour videos as I figure this out. But videos there will be. Let’s begin as I intend to continue, with my first 2023 project with videos.
I was gifted 2 large bags of fingering weight wool by my sister Lyn, of Shelridge Yarns. Yup, this is a lot of excellent wool.
It’s burning a hole in my project bag. Is this even a thing? You know what I mean, right? I need to use it, lots of it, right now!
I’ve chosen to work Stephen West’s Jigsaw Puzzle Blanket. It has a lot going for it. Two strands of fingering are held together throughout. It’s worked on nice big needles and it’s modular too, yahoo.
So far I am on my third section and I can already see that the turning, turning, turning for the garter rows is going to be a drag as this gets bigger.
Purling back backwards is coming to the rescue. You work it with the right side facing (no turning to the wrong side). It gives you the garter stitch bumps needed.
Here’s how it’s done. (You can skip to the video below if you want to.)
With yarn in front, insert the left needle into the back leg of the next stitch, from back to front.
Wrap the yarn around the front needle, counterclockwise.
Push your front needle through the stitch to the back. Purl bump made.
Do you want to see it in real time?
Make purl bumps of garter stitch made with the Right Side facing, no turning needed.
I am going to be soooooo good at this by the end!
Hope you have chosen a gorgeous new project to get you started on 2023.
Have you tried this? I don’t use a cable needle. I was going to say I don’t own one but I think I do. It’s in the container with my set of straight needles which I also don’t use. Why do I still have them? That’s a very good question. Let’s not go there today.
One of my internet friends wanted to know how I get my cables to look so neat and tidy. My first thought was that I had no idea. I just do them and they turn out that way. But then, the next day, I remembered that I don’t use a cable needle. It’s not that I didn’t know I don’t use a cable needle, that would be sort of crazy, it’s that I haven’t used one for quite a long time so it doesn’t occur to me that they are needed to work cables.
So I did a video to show you how I do it. Thanks CD for the question that prompted this. I hope this visualization helps.
Only use the tips of your needles. Push all the stitches on your needles to the tips so you can maneuver your needles without pulling any of the stitches.
Take your needles to the stitches. Load the stitches going to the Back first. Once they are on your needle, Leave Them Where They Lie, usually slightly to the back of your work. Don’t move them because they will pull the stitches that are still hanging free.
Load the stitches going to the Front.
Cross the stitches to the Right or Left and load the stitches on your right needle onto the left needle. Check that you crossed them correctly. If not take them off and start again.
Knit across the cable stitches.
It’s a little risky but so satisfying and no cable needle to lose, imagine that!
The 3-Act Play scarf begins with 3 Triangles joined-as-you-go. Why make a point of talking about any one Triangle over the other two? It’s because Triangle 3 has some differences the other two triangle don’t have. It can be knit in garter stitch but here I knit it with eyelets and colour stripes. Yes, it was an adventure.
This was the second 3-Act Play scarf I knit. I decided to add Triangle 3 to the centre colour section by knitting it in two colours, plus the eyelets just to keep the eyelet thing going over all three triangles. I wanted to see how that would play out.
I really like how it looks but it is tricky. This is the 4-Row Eyelet pattern in the Mods pages: 2 rows for the eyelets and 2 rows in garter stitch. The colour of the garter stitch rows are the most obvious when it’s done. That’s a bit of a shame since the eyelets are more decorative but that’s the way it is.
It’s tricky because the beginning of the right side rows, where each new stripe is going to begin, is in the centre at the join between Triangle 2 and Triangle 3. I did a video.
Moving foward, I’ve ordered wool to make a couple more sweaters. I wish it was here already because I want to knit 2 more sweaters before the summer comes. Wait here, I’ll just go look on the porch to see if it’s come, nope, not today.
In the meantime I’m knitting my little grandson a mini-me sweater. It’s a great way to use up all the left-over odd balls and a testknit for my pattern. Daddy’s sweater and little Max’s sweater.
I did it. I pressed the Publish button on the 3-Act Play Scarf. This is hard to do while my fingers are crossed as well as my toes. Pressing that button is … boy it’s hard to explain, it’s pushing something out into the world and letting it sink or swim, all on it’s own. It’s like taking your child to school on the first day. They know their name and their address, they can count to ten and are hopefully, fairly well behaved. Then you have to watch them walk in that door, turn your back and walk back home.
I have to confess that once this vague and unformed idea for a scarf became a little more concrete, I got totally carried away. The scarf and I started running off in all directions and it was hard to harness it into something I could write down clearly.
The main pattern is worked in garter stitch and is 6 pages long. That includes photos and a title page and all that you expect in a written pattern. The actual instructions are 3 pages.
Then there is a separate download that has lots of modifications (variations) that you can work on this scarf. That document is 7 pages long and that’s the cut down version. Ha, ha, ha, I know, I know, crazy, eh? There are instructions for stripes, 3 eyelet patterns, 4 slip stitch patterns and 3 lace patterns. It is certainly an adventure and not for the weak of heart, as my testknitters found out.
I am making videos for the first 3 Triangles. It’s amateur hour but here is a video about Triangle I to make sure you end it at the right point. 3-Act Play scarf: Triangle 1 This is my little sample.
If you want to follow along with me, I am going to blog about one Triangle a week as I make more videos. I just wrote this down. Now that it’s in writing, I must do it. You can keep me accountable on this.
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.
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?
Deb Gemmell: Top Down, Gauge Free and more 