This time I’m trying to create a basic jumper, wit a bit of positive ease. Grey, and I’m planning to decorate it with flower embroidery.
Top down, raglan with back elevation. Below are my notes whose main purpose is to make sure I know what I did this time, to keep all the information in one place. But I hope they might be useful to other people, too. Please feel free to ask questions!
I am using 100% merino 120m/50g.
Swatch on 4.5 mm needles – 18 sts and 24 rows in 10×10 cm.
I started the turtle neck with k1, p2 ribbing, 90 sts, 3.75mm needles. Aiming to get a 50cm neckline at the beginning of the yoke (18*5=90).
After 8cm of ribbing, (knit 1 round, purl one round) twice. Switch to 4.5 mm needles.
To calculate the neckline stitches, back elevation, and front neckline shaping:
Total stitches less raglan line stitches (3 in my case) 90 – 4 *3=78. NOTE TO SELF – trying the sweater on as I make it, I am not sure I love the look of wide raglan lines… Divide the result by 10, and allocate 3/10ths to each front and back, and 2/10ths to each sleeve. => 24 sts back/front, and 15 sts for each sleeve in ly case.
Now calculate the height of back elevation. For this sweater I will do 3 cm, as it’s a turtle neck = 8 rows ( 3*2.4=7.2, always must be an even number). This means that we will need 4 turning points on each sleeve for short row shaping. We will place them only along approximately half of sleeve stitches closest to back, for a better fit (if you can’t divide stitches between the turning points evenly, place larger number of stitches towards the front, so that you turn more often in the beginning). I will do 4 times 2 stitches, leaving 7 of 15 stitches untouched.
This also means that you need to substract 4 stitches (= the number of turning points for short rows) from total back stitch count and add them to the front so that the back and the front are even after the elevation (you will increase along the back raglan lines while the front will be untouched), in my case, the stitch count after this adjustment is 20 sts for the back and 28 stitches for the front.
Now calculate how many rows is your neckline shaping in front. this will make sure that the neckline in the front is rounded, and not a straight horizontal line. Again, as mine is a turtle neck, I will only do 4 rows (1.5 cm). This means two turning points on each side of the front. Divide front stitches roughly in 3 parts, two equal on sides,and one in front that will not be affected by short rows. In my case 28/3~9. So 10 stitches in front, and 9 stitches on each side. Now you need to divide the side stitches in number of parts equal to turning points. Allocate the least number of stitches closest to the sleeve, increasing towards the middle. In my case, only two parts, so 4 and 5 stitches.
Knitting the yoke
The round starts at the arrow. M1 for raglan increase, knit until the second increase line of the back, make increases on each side of it, knit the number of stitches you have calculated until the first turning point, wrap and turn, purl back evenly until the beginning of the round. Continue past the 1st back raglan line, increase 1 stitch after it, continue to 1st turning point of this side. Wrap and turn. Knit back. Start increasing for raglan after passing the starting point. When you pass by the w&t of the previous row, knit the wrap. Continue working back and forth, working all the turning points on the sleeves. Than go on to neck shaping, this time increasing the front raglan lines, too ( one on the right side, and the other one on the wrong side).
When the last one is worked, knit back to the start of the round. Now work in rounds in one direction, increasing on each side of the raglan line every second round.
It is also possible to calculate the sleeve increaseses differently from body increases, as often the sleeves end up wider than necessary.
Calculating the lenth of the yoke
My bust measurement is 86 cm, upper arm – 29 cm. Aiming to have 10 cm positive ease. Should get there in 44 rounds after finishing the back elevation. When calculating how many stitches you will need to have when you are ready to divide for body and sleeves, take into account the underarm stitches to be cast on, and also about 4 extra stitches you need to pick up for sleeves so that there aren’t any holes.
Having tried it on after 44 rounds, I have decided to add 4 more rounds.
Dividing for sleeves and body.
Next round, knit even until the second back increase line. I am allocating all the stitches between increases to the body, so I knit these three stitches, too, but it is possible to split them between body and sleeves. Slide the sleeve stitches onto scrap yarn (I want to try next time using a crochet hook and scrap yarn to bind them off temporarily). Cast on underarm stitches (total number of both underarms should apporimately be 8% of the body stitches, 7 in my case); knit the front body stitches, separate the second sleeve, cast on the second underarm, and continue body in round.
For my next project, I would like to try false side seams: slipped knit stitch with two purl stitches on the sides.
You van read the second part here. Once again, please do not hesitate to ask questions if you are interested, as this post definitely did not cover all the information.
