Eat.Sleep.Blog
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Let’s talk for a minute about sweaters. I am a sweater knitter, through and through. A pair of socks can
take me a month, but I’ll whip through a sweater in two weeks, no problem. And many of you are scared to
make a sweater, because you’re not sure if it will fit right, or how to make it fit right, so I’m hoping to help
you take the sweater plunge, here.
Sweaters are built on measurements for some key areas of the body:
Bust (blue)
Natural waist (pink)
High hip (orange)
Arm circumference (green)
Length from underarm to end of garment
Sleeve depth (length from underarm to
shoulder)
And if you are lucky enough to be shaped like
my illustration here, you are probably okay to
just measure, find the closest size, go forth
and knit. Most sweaters are based on the
“average” female body type, which is the
hourglass shown above. But we all know
there a zillion different body types. I’m a pear,
through and through. I can get bigger or
smaller, but I’m always a pear. If I apply the
same measurements, in the same places, to
my own body, the sweater will not fit. Witness exhibit A:
First, some definitions:
Bust – this is the total circumference around the
fullest part of your bust. NOT your bra band size.
Natural waist – this is the circumference around
the narrowest part of your waist; for most people
this is about 2-3 inches above your belly button. If
you are measuring at or below your belly button,
you are measuring too low and need to move up.
Many people have trouble with this due to
prevailing negative body image, so as a guideline
I’ll share – I typically wear a size 12 in pants and
my “natural waist” is 31”. Do I have larger areas
around my middle? Absolutely. But knowing that
won’t help me fit my sweater.
High hip – another tricky one! This is the
circumference around your hips at the very top of
your pelvic bones – not the largest place around
your rear end, which is the traditional “hip”
measurement. The high hip is typically where you want a sweater to fall, so unless you are knitting a coat
or tunic-length garment, you should use your “high hip” measurement for your hip measurement. For me
this is a huge difference – my hip measurement is about 44” but my high hip is only 38”. If I knit my
sweaters to be 44” wide, they’d fit me terribly, being 6+ inches too large at the hem.
Arm circumference – this is the circumference around the largest part of your upper arm, usually just
below your shoulder.
Here are where the bust, waist, and hip measurements might fall on different types of bodies.
Now that you’ve located the correct locations on your body for your bust, natural waist, and high hip, you’ll
want to take some length measurements. I am only 5’4” (about 1.6 meters for the metric folks), and still find
most patterns as written to be woefully short. And, as shown in the illustration above, different body types
mean the waistlines and bustlines may fall at different places than the pattern assumes. First, measure the
length straight up and down from your underarm to your preferred sweater hemline. Then, measure the
length in the same manner from the fullest point of your bust to your natural waist, and again from your
natural waist to your preferred hemline.
This seems like a lot of work, but you only have to do it once and then you’re ready to knit sweaters that fit.
So, you’ve written down all your measurements, now what?
Most patterns have a schematic included, and are general sized by bust measurement. Locate the
appropriate size based on your bust measurement on the schematic and check the waist and hip
circumferences for those sizes. If they match your own, you’re good to go. If not, you’ll want to adjust the
pattern accordingly, or your sweater will not fit you (and then you’ll never wear it – how sad would that
be?).
For me, this is what I know about my body – my bust is about 35”, and most patterns have a hip
measurement for this size of 35”. I need 38”, so I multiply 38 (or 19, if knitting flat) by the number of
stitches per inch. This is the number of stitches I need to have at the bottom of the sweater.
My natural waist is 31” and is only about 6” from my hemline. I like to have a bit of positive ease around my
middle, so I add an inch, and multiply 32 (or 16 if knitting flat) by the number of stitches per inch. This is the
number of stitches I need to have at the waist of my sweater, which should be about 6” from the hemline
and 9” from the underarm.
Now when I start knitting the sweater, I can simply substitute these numbers in for the pattern instructions.
If the number of stitches you need for the waist is fewer than in the pattern, you’ll need to do more
decreases than the pattern calls for, and vice versa if it’s larger. The same for the hip area. And if the
pattern says to knit to a length that is less than your actual desired length, you just substitute in your own
length measurement. Patterns that don’t have schematics are harder, but you can get the measurements
in the pattern instructions my multiplying the given stitch or row counts by the given gauge.
And then there is the issue of sleeves. My arms are 13”, about 1” bigger than the fit size for most patterns
in my size. I add these extra stitches accordingly, which can be tricky to incorporate into sleeve cap
shaping if you’re not knitting a raglan. Typically when making sleeves bigger than the pattern calls for
when knitting a sweater in pieces, you’ll bind off more stitches to begin sleeve cap shaping and decrease
more frequently as well. If this is the first time you’re trying to modify a pattern to fit, I would start with a
raglan (bottom up or top down) so you get a better idea of the process.
The other day, I posted a bit about yarn substitution and the best way to choose a yarn for a project. I
mentioned another kind of yarn substitution where you are subbing in a yarn with a totally different gauge
than called for in the pattern, which is probably what I do for 90% of my own knitting projects. So, as
promised, yarn substitution part two. Or “how I turn a simple knitting pattern into a complicated schematic
involving nuclear physics.” Just kidding! It is a little more complicated, but once you get the idea, it should
only involve a few buttons on the calculator.
Sometimes, I see a pattern, I like it, I add it to my
Ravelry favorites, and I don’t think much else about it.
Later, I’ll see a yarn, and instantly know that *this* is the
yarn for that pattern. And then, of course, I pull up the
pattern and realize it’s written for fingering weight and
I’ve chosen a worsted weight. (See my Honeybee
Cardigan, knit with SweetGeorgia Merino Silk Aran
instead of the fingering weight Malabrigo Sock the
pattern suggested, right.) I’m not one to give up on my
visions, so I trot out the calculator and go to it.
Here is, in a nutshell, what you want to do: 1. Knit a
gauge swatch (or, as I often like to call it, “start a
sleeve.”). 2. Measure your gauge (stitches *and* rows –
this is important). 3. Assuming you are using an actual
pattern size, go through the pattern and every time it
lists how many stitches you should cast on, bind off,
increase up to, or increase down to, multiply that
number by (your gauge)/(listed gauge). So if your gauge above was 4 spi, and listed gauge was 6 spi, you
would multiply by 4/6 (or two-thirds) to get new stitch counts. 4. Go forth and be merry.
Rate of Increases/Decreases
When the pattern calls for increasing or decreasing to shape armholes, sleeve caps, and necklines, you’ll
want to consider your new row gauge. In the case of my Honeybee, the pattern’s row gauge is 8 rows per
inch, and I was getting closer to 4 rows per inch with my worsted weight yarn. Again, you want to look at
the equation of (your gauge)/(listed gauge); in this case it was almost exactly half. This means that any
place the pattern says to decrease every two rows, I would decrease every row. If it said to increase every
6 rows, I would want to increase every 3. The same would be true in reverse; if you knit a worsted weight
pattern with fingering weight yarn, instead of increasing every 6 rows, you’d increase every 12 rows.
This can be trickier if your ratio is not as pretty. The Honeybee cardigan uses decreases and short-rows to
shape the armholes, sleeve caps, and neckline, and typically these are done every other row. If my row
gauge had been 6 rows/inch instead of 4, I would have had a ratio of ¾. Instead of just being able to
change to decreasing every row, I would have wanted to decrease three times for every four pattern rows. I
would have knit this as: Row 1, decrease; Row 2, decrease; Row 3, plain; Row 4, decrease. Ultimately
your goal is just to get from your original stitch count to your new, decreased stitch count (you calculated
both of these in step 3, right? Right??), in the same length of knitting as you would have with the pattern’s
suggested gauge.
How Much To Buy
This is the one that people get hung up on; it seems complicated but it’s not at all so long as you’re
changing the pattern gauge to match your new yarn’s appropriate gauge. And frankly, what I am about to
say may be considered completely verboten in the knitting community, but this is what I do and it has
worked flawlessly, every time – go by the weight, not the yardage, called for in the pattern. If the pattern
calls for 750 yards of a yarn that comes in 4 oz skeins of 225 yards each, you would need to buy 4 skeins,
or 16 oz) of that yarn. Ergo, 4 skeins (or equivalent to 16 oz if in different put-ups) of any weight of yarn
should complete the pattern as well.
One exception to this rule is if you are holding your yarn double to knit with. This seems to warp the
knitting-time-space continuum in some way that causes it to require more yarn than you would need
otherwise. For this, I always buy an extra skein or two.
That’s really all there is to it. Like with any yarn choice, there are things you’ll want to take into
consideration before throwing any yarn into any pattern willy-nilly. Changing a sweater like Honeybee from
fingering weight to worsted weight will change the way the lace pattern looks. You’ll have fewer honeybees
in your sweater, but they’ll be more pronounced. It will also make the sweater heavier/warmer, so always
take warmth into consideration when changing yarns out on a garment. Living in a warm climate, swapping
in fingering/sportweight yarns for worsted/bulky patterns is a favorite trick of mine, but then you will lose
some of the thickness/lushness that often makes a bulky sweater look so cozy. And most importantly – do
you love it, and will you love knitting it???
We interrupt our series on yarn choice and substitution to bring you this important message about
alternating skeins. It seems timely because this time of year, perhaps as people are gearing back up for fall
and holiday knitting and cold weather, we start getting many more e-mails and phone calls asking what this
is, how to do it, if you really need to do it, what to do if you didn’t do it and now your project is ruined
(ruined?!).
So you’re starting your first project using multiple skeins of hand-dyed yarn. The first thing you need to
know is that it is recommended by every dyer that you always, always, always alternate skeins when
knitting one project out of multiple skeins of hand-dyed yarn. Here’s why:
Photo by Kim of her Saroyan Shawl in Black Currant
Tosh DK
See that distinct line? That’s where Kim ended one
skein and began another, and it’s extremely rare for
any two hand-dyed skeins to match so well that this
line won’t show up to some varying degree if you don’t
alternate your skeins. Even two skeins that look 100%
identical in the hank will usually end up exhibiting a
line of this sort when you switch skeins. It’s just the
nature of the beast.
When you alternate skeins, what you are basically
doing is knitting with two skeins at the same time. You knit a couple of rows/rounds with one skein, then a
couple with the second, then back to the first, and so on. This obscures the variations between the two
skeins and essentially turns them into one homogenized skein. You’ll run both yarns up the side of the
project in one spot, so there aren’t any additional ends to weave in.
I’ve written up a little photo tutorial on the technique, using two different colors of Dream In Color Groovy
for illustrative purposes. (obviously in your project you’re using the same color and shouldn’t really be able
to identify where you are switching yarns.)
Here is my swatch knit with Skein A, which I’ll begin alternating with Skein B.
To begin alternating, at the beginning of the row, I drop skein A and just start knitting with Skein B.
One row complete, and now since I’m knitting flat, I’ll purl back with Skein B to get back to the start point. If
I were knitting in the round, I could either alternate every other round or just knit a second round and
alternate every two rounds.
Back at the beginning, I drop Skein B and pick up Skein A. I try to make sure to catch Skein B behind A as I
do this to keep the yarn tidy as it’s carried up the side, and begin knitting again with Skein A. After I knit the
first stitch, I gently tug the project down to make sure my first stitch isn’t too tight, which could cause your
project to pucker along the carryedge.
And that’s it, just lather, rinse, repeat.
Here is what the back side of my
carry-edge looks like. Each time I
catch the yarn, it gives it this halfbraided look.
I know what you are going to say,
which is, that seems like a real pain in
the butt – and it kind of is! It’s the kind
of pain in the butt that is really, really
worth it though, if this kind of thing
freaks you out:
Photo of Jen’s Scotty Vest in Dream
In Color Groovy, Giant Peach
So here is my advice to one and all –
myself, my friends, our customers, all
of you! Obviously, you know the
manufacturer’s recommendation, so
every time you choose not to
alternate, you have to accept that you
are taking a risk and may end up
ripping your project back. If you have
a low tolerance for variations, you
should always alternate, always,
because it’s hand-dyed yarn – there
will be variations. I can guarantee it.
But, if you have a medium or high
tolerance as I do, I have two triedand-true methods I use that I call “the
lazy knitter’s alternating.” The first is
to only alternate for the last inch or so of a skein. To do this, you just would knit with Skein A until you have
only enough left for maybe 6-8 rows. Then, you alternate in Skein B as in the tutorial above – follow the
instructions in the photo tutorial exactly. Make sure you switch between A and B at least three times for
best results, or until you run out of A. Then just keep going with Skein B and repeat again with Skeins C, D,
E as needed. This doesn’t entirely eliminate the color change the way that alternating throughout would,
but it disguises the line where you change skeins so that smaller degrees of variation are no longer
noticeable.
The second is great for things knit in pieces, like seamed sweaters – I just knit each piece out of only one
skein. So like, I’d knit the back out of Skein A, the front out of Skein B, and then I’d do the first sleeve in
Skein C. If I had enough left for the whole second sleeve, I’d use Skein C, but if not, I’d leave Skein C and
knit the entire second sleeve out of Skein D. Hoodie? Knit the hood out of Skein E! Basically, I keep the
skein changes around seams, where it doesn’t look so obvious. Buttonbands, collars, even ribbing at the
bottom. I did this with my Cecilia – the ribbings at the bottom and on the button/neckband are from my
second skein, which did not match my first at all. You can definitely tell, but unless you point it out you don’t
notice.
So go forth, alternate (or don’t!), and
be merry!