WIP: saddle-shoulder sweater in Malabrigo
I am so very close to the finish line with my saddle-shoulder sweater! Although I've run into a few concerns, but I think that I've worked through most of them. Thanks for your comments on my post yesterday.
My main concern is the first set of decreases after you join the body and arms, I worked for about 1.5 inches after joining them and then started the shoulder decreases. I wasn't exactly sure where I was supposed to measure my shoulders. In the book she's knitting a 40" bust sweater and the given width was 14". I'm knitting a 36" bust. If I measure from edge to edge of my shoulders I get about 17", so that didn't sound right. If I measure from the tops of the bony part of my shoulder I got about 13", which seemed a little closer. Looking at the drawings it seemed like that was what she was looking for. I also measured the shoulder width of a set-in sleeve sweater that fit well and it was 13". I decided to knit on.
With a gauge of 4 sts/in that gave me a key number of 52 sts to decrease to. I only had 60 body stitches. (I had cast on 144 sts, assigned 12 to the arms, so f/b was 60 sts each). That left me with 4 decrease rounds, which seemed reasonable. Once I had 52 sts left I switched to the sleeve decreases and knit until there were 12 stitches left.
All seemed to be going well. However, when I tried it on there a weird pooch in the sleeve. Does this mean that I should have started the sleeve decreases earlier? Could something be off with my shoulder measurements. Will it work itself out when the whole thing is done?
(Edit: sorry the first photos I put were so huge, it's fixed now, you can click for a larger view in flickr.)
Here is a photo of the full sweater:
Then here's a close up of the pooch I'm talking about:
Details of the decreases flat:
(with saddle)
(without saddle)
So, if you have any insight on this it would be great. I'm so close to the end that I'll probably just finish the main parts, try it on and if the pooch still hasn't worked itself out, I'll frog back and play around with my numbers a bit. The one thing I thought was that I could take a stitch away from each of the sleeve sections. 8% of 144 was 11.5, so I rounded up to 12...there seems to be a little extra in the underarm area, so that might help a bit.
My main concern is the first set of decreases after you join the body and arms, I worked for about 1.5 inches after joining them and then started the shoulder decreases. I wasn't exactly sure where I was supposed to measure my shoulders. In the book she's knitting a 40" bust sweater and the given width was 14". I'm knitting a 36" bust. If I measure from edge to edge of my shoulders I get about 17", so that didn't sound right. If I measure from the tops of the bony part of my shoulder I got about 13", which seemed a little closer. Looking at the drawings it seemed like that was what she was looking for. I also measured the shoulder width of a set-in sleeve sweater that fit well and it was 13". I decided to knit on.
With a gauge of 4 sts/in that gave me a key number of 52 sts to decrease to. I only had 60 body stitches. (I had cast on 144 sts, assigned 12 to the arms, so f/b was 60 sts each). That left me with 4 decrease rounds, which seemed reasonable. Once I had 52 sts left I switched to the sleeve decreases and knit until there were 12 stitches left.
All seemed to be going well. However, when I tried it on there a weird pooch in the sleeve. Does this mean that I should have started the sleeve decreases earlier? Could something be off with my shoulder measurements. Will it work itself out when the whole thing is done?
(Edit: sorry the first photos I put were so huge, it's fixed now, you can click for a larger view in flickr.)
Here is a photo of the full sweater:
Then here's a close up of the pooch I'm talking about:
Details of the decreases flat:
(with saddle)
(without saddle)
So, if you have any insight on this it would be great. I'm so close to the end that I'll probably just finish the main parts, try it on and if the pooch still hasn't worked itself out, I'll frog back and play around with my numbers a bit. The one thing I thought was that I could take a stitch away from each of the sleeve sections. 8% of 144 was 11.5, so I rounded up to 12...there seems to be a little extra in the underarm area, so that might help a bit.
posted by Fresh Ground Knits at
9:42 AM
5 Comments:
Hmm..just from the picture, it looks like you didn't decrease fast enough...I haven't knit the sweater, so I'm not sure.
On another note, that's the same color Malabrigo I knit my EZ Raglan sweater out of! Very Pretty!
By
Tara, at 4:41 PM
It's a lovely looking sweater, pooch or no pooch! I'm wondering if you should have started the decreases sooner, rather than working that inch and a half without decreasing? I haven't tried the saddle shoulder yet, so I'm sure those who have can provide more insight. Keep in mind that any sweater design is liable to wrinkle a little there when you have your arms at your sides - otherwise you wouldn't be able to lift them very comfortably.
By
Sarah / Blue Garter, at 5:09 PM
Have you seen wear in the Malabrigo yet? I used some to make a scarf and it was lovely... but I was afraid it would felt under the arms in a sweater.
By
Anonymous, at 5:35 AM
I don't have any advice to offer about the sweater, but it looks absolutely lovely :)
By
Anonymous, at 2:40 PM
I've successfully made this design; try this: On the inch of straight knitting; decrease one stitch at each join, but decrease from the body, not the sleeve. This will move the shoulders in closer to the breastbone, narrowing the shoulder width (and hopefully, eliminate the bagging.)
By
Rebecca Z., at 1:51 PM
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