Zimmermania

Saturday, May 05, 2007

First EZSweater~Help with Percentages Please

I have finally(!) decided to do the first sweater out of the book Knitting Workshhop and save the steeking for later( Fitting is the priority now)

I have ordered the yarn so now the investment has been made.

I am looking at her percentages for the Yoked sweater, and the upper sleeves are at 33% of your key number.
I was thinking that that percentage is a bit low, when you consider that its about 50% or so for a drop shoulder sweater.
Is there anyway to add an inch or two of stitches without re calculating the entire yoke?

I know you can do this to a raglan~ but I wanted to do this on the fair isle yoked sweater (of the book.
I was going to do spaces of solid colors vs colorwork the first time around if that makes it any easier.
I have wanted to do this sweater for a long long time and I finally got the courage up to do it.

Thanks Zimmermaniacs ~ As Always, your words are encouraging ,,and your work is remarkable!

Happy Knitting!

4 Comments:

  • A drop-shoulder sweater fits in a completely different way around the shoulders and upper arms than a raglan or yoke sweater, so the measurement for the upper arm in the latter two types *should* be considerably smaller than in a drop-shoulder sweater (where, basically, a lot of extra room is put into the shoulder/upper arm area to compensate for the bulkiness of all that extra fabric). But if you're really worried about the fit, try measuring your favorite raglan or yoke sweater, or measuring your own upper arm (adding ease) at the point where the EPS upper arms joins the body - which is just under the armpit. In my case, this measurement really is about 33% of the chest measurement. But of course we're all different and there are certainly ways to adjust if you want something slightly different than what EZ calls for (but exactly how depends on what kind and how much of a change you want to make)

    By Blogger Kate A., at 1:23 PM  

  • i don't see any reason why you cannot make the sleeves, say, 40 % of k. the yoke will regulate itself. of course you will have to do a bit of math and maybe fudge a bit to make 'the ends of the fairisle pattern meet' but you will have to do that no matter if your percentage is 40 or 35. i think 37 is a nice percentage for a sweater in worsted or dk. would go as low as 33 for a lighter sweater. it is all a matter of taste and trend.

    By Blogger knititch, at 2:05 PM  

  • some simple guidelines:

    Are you thick or thin?

    Are your shoulders strong or delicate?

    Do you want to heft bales of hay or type at a computer?

    Is your yarn bulky or fine?

    The more your answers lean toward the first options (thick, strong, haybales, bulky) the larger you want the shoulder % to be. The more toward the second options, the smaller tat % should be.

    From what I can tell, most of EZ's sweaters have a bit more ease then more recent styles have; but her yarns are lofty and full more (fluff), and that uses some of the ease. (This is one of the reasons washing and drying that swatch are so important.)

    Again, the best results come if you measure a sweater with a fit you already love that has a similarly-hefted yarn. If it's a finer yarn, add an inch or so to you key number, a heavier yarn subtract a bit. If you're color stranding, the finished sweater may not have as much stretch, so you should consider that as well.

    The beauty of EPS is that it allows you to quicky understand the relationships of the components of a sweater to your body (or another loved body, I should add). Over the course of several, you'll get the hang of making the perfect fitting sweater out the the yarn at hand and the pattern in mind suitable for the ways the lucky recipient is likely to wear the finished sweater.

    By Blogger Rebecca Z., at 7:09 AM  

  • I have done an Updated EPS handout with upper arms (on a yoke-style garment) at 38 to 40% of [K].
    If you are doing a yoke, you may want to have 4 concentric rings of decreases to get rid of the extra sleeve stitches.
    And/Or put 10% on threads at the underarm instead of 8%.
    If a Raglan with 40% sleeves, begin decreasing after only 2 or 3 rounds on all (united) sleeve & body stitches. You can dec exdtra stitches severely around the neck in the first ribbed round.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:31 PM  

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