FO: Another purple sweater

Somehow purple seems to have become my new favorite color. At least for Tadpole. It clearly says "Hi, I'm a girl!" without being that color I can only think of as baby girl pink, two very good things in my book.

I meant to knit this skein up into a baby sweater a while ago but I never quite got around to it until this past month. It was sure worth the wait!

After I hung up the phone from scheduling a 6-month photo shoot for Tadpole, I had the brilliant - and delusional - idea that I would whip up a new sweater for her to wear in the pictures. I had a week and that was enough time, right?

This was a quick knit but not that quick. It took me two weeks instead of the one I had planned.

Project specs:

Yarn: About 9/10 of a skein of Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in the flashdance colorway
Needles: size 2 addi lace circulars (magic loop on the sleeves)
Size: 19" chest circumference, which fits 7 month old Tadpole over a long sleeve onesie
Pattern: A sheet of scribbles loosely modeled on the Tea Leaves Cardigan

This is the first top-down baby sweater that I've done completely from scratch. The top-down method is pretty simple but what had always stumped me was knowing how many stitches to cast on for the neck. It's all smooth sailing after that but everything (especially if you're using the EPS) follows from that first number. I worked backwards from the chest measurement and got the figures I needed but afterwards I sat down and came up with a formula that should work every time.

Here we go . . .

Basic Formula for a Top-Down Yoke Increase Baby Cardigan

We'll do the math first and then the "pattern" second.

1. Knit a swatch. All you really care about is stitch gauge here so work the quickest swatch that will get you that number. Write down your stitch gauge.

2. Figure out how big around you want the chest of the sweater to be. 19-20" should be safe for a 6-12 month old baby. Err on the side of making the piece too big since babies will always grow into the sweater eventually.

3. Multiply your stitch gauge by your desired chest circumference to get your key number (K).

Quick digression: since this is a baby sweater, you probably want a cardigan instead of a pullover so you might need to tweak your K a bit so that the piece divides nicely in the front. Round your K to the nearest multiple of 4.

Why 4? You'll need to make button bands for the cardigan that lay one on top of the other. If the center of the garment lies in the middle of the chest, half of the band stitches come from the right front and half come from the left front. In order to have a left front and a right front that are each 1/4 of the total chest circumference, you'll need a chest circumference that is a multiple of 4 stitches (you can't have a right front that is 25.25 stitches wide, even if that's what your calculator tells you the measurement should be).

4. Calculate how many stitches you need to cast on for the neck: K x 57% = neck stitches (N). Now add your button band stitches. I used a 4-stitch garter button band so I added 8 stitches (4 for each band) to my N to get my cast on figure. But N is what you'll use for the next calculations.

5. First Increase Row: ignoring the button bands, (k2, m1) across the entire row. You'll now have 50% more stitches than you had before.

6. Calculate the number of Yoke Stitches (Y) you will need. This is where the Elizabeth Percentage System (EPS) comes in.

• Body Stitches = K - underarm stitches (8% K on each side) = 0.84 K
• Arm Stitches = 30% K - underarm stitches (8% K on each side) = 0.22 K (one arm)

Total # stitches on yoke needle = 0.84 K + 2 x 0.22 K  = 1.28 K

6. Second Increase Row: Ignoring the button bands, (k2, m1) across the entire row.

You may need to adjust this by one stitch since your stitch count on this row (after the increases) should equal 1.28 K. To do a quick check before working the row, multiply your stitch count from the previous row (omitting button bands) by 1.5

If your projected stitch count is one stitch too small, work m1, (k2, m1) across the entire row.

If your projected stitch count is one stitch too large, work (k2, m1), end k2 across the entire row.


Now that we have all of the math taken care of, here's the basic outline of the sweater:

Cast on (N + button bands) stitches. Work neck band in whatever stitch pattern you prefer. Switch to your pattern stitch and continue in pattern until the piece is about an inch and a half long. Work your first increase row. Knit in pattern for another inch and a half or so before woking another increase round. Knit for yet another inch and a half or so and then separate out the sleeve stitches as follows. Work the button band and 0.21 K stitches (the left front minus half the underarm stitches). Place the next 0.22 K stitches on a holder (this is the first sleeve). CO 0.08 K stitches for the underarm and work across the next 0.42 K stitches (this is the back). Put the next 0.22 K stitches on a holder (this is the second sleeve), CO 0.08 K stitches for the second underarm and work across the last 0.21 K stitches and the last button band.

You just put the sleeve stitches on holders to work later and now have K stitches plus the button bands on the needle for the body. Work the body until the desired length and finish with a hem of your choice.

To work the sleeves, pick up and knit 0.08 K stitches from the cast on edge at the underarm and work with the sleeve stitches on the holders until the sleeve is the desired length, finishing with a hem of your choice. Repeat for the second sleeve.

That's it.

Where did my inch and a half yoke lengths come from? You want to space the two increase rows evenly through the yoke. So figure out how long the yoke should be and divide that number by three to get how far you should knit before working an increase row. Right now, Tadpole wears sweaters with about 4.5 - 5 inch long yokes. One third of that is 1.5 inches.

 Happy Knitting!

Tutorial: Picking up Stitches

The Baby Boatneck calls for picking up stitches and then knitting the sleeves down from the shoulder. Since picking up from garter stitch is a bit trickier than picking up from stockinette, here is a little tutorial on three different ways to do it.

Before I get into the tutorial, let me begin with a description of what exactly it is that you are trying to do. You want to pick up stitches in a straight line perpendicular to the rows that you were knitting on the body of the sweater. This means that you will want to pick a column of stitches and pick up and knit from the same part of the stitch in every stitch in that row.

I like picking up one of the bumps in between the stitches. Take a look at your knitting and see how garter stitch has "top" bumps and "bottom" bumps. It does not matter which you chose so long as you stay consistent.

Here is one way to find the "in between" bumps. Run a needle through the top bump of a column of stitches:



See how the needle runs through the same part of each stitch in the column? Now comes the tricky part since we are working at the edge of the knitted fabric, where garter stitch can get a little odd looking. (Of course, you could always work a stitch or so in from the edge to make this easier but I try to avoid that since the seams get quite bulky) Find the bump immediately next to the first bump (the one with the needle in it) towards the edge of the garment. If your first bump was a "top" bump the then one next to it will be a "bottom" bump and vice versa. Run a second needle through this column of bumps.



You will see how that loop can look different depending on the tension of the row but if you start by finding a recognizable column of bumps, you can always find the edge loop/bump by moving one bump towards the edge from your starting point.

One other tip before we get started: count out how many stitches you will need to pick up (for garter it is one stitch per one row; stockinette will vary according to the relationship between your stitch and row gauges but that is for another time) and mark the end points. I like paper clips. They are cheap, colorful, and you never feel bad when you inevitably lose one.



Now onto the actual tutorial.
Option #1: Sliding in a knitting needle and knitting right off it.
That is about all there is to it. Find the column of stitches in which you want to pick up and knit for the sleeve and then slide a knitting needle into the stitches of the column. Make sure that you have the same number of stitches on either side of the shoulder (if you need to pick up 44 stitches, you would have 22 on the front and 22 on the back).



See how all of the pick-up loops are in the same column. This makes for a neat and clean edge of the sleeve and shoulder.



Here you can see stitches for an entire sleeve ready to go. We have not knit anything yet, just picked up stitches in preparation for it. You can also see the paperclips marking the sides of the sleeve.



Now just go ahead and knit across that row of stitches.



That was not too bad now, was it? Ready for option number 2?

Option #2: using a crochet hook to pick up and knit
This method is very much like the first: pick a column of stitches to follow and stick with it. Now, instead of running a knitting needle through the bumps and then knitting across them, you will insert a crochet hook into the bump and draw the working yarn back out.

Take a crochet hook the same size as your knitting needle or a bit smaller and insert it through the bump as if to knit. Go ahead and tug with your left hand (the one holding the knitted piece) if you need to in order to get the crochet hook in there.

Have your working yarn ready to attach - as if you were just starting another ball - with a tail off to the side to weave in later (you can knit it in on your next knit row). With the yarn and crochet hook in your right hand, catch the yarn in the hook and draw it through the bump and onto the body of the crochet hook.



Once you have a number of these loops, go ahead and transfer them off the crochet hook and onto a knitting needle.



Repeat until you have picked up all of the sleeve stitches.

The end result of option 2 is a bit different from that of option 1: now you have "knit" across the row and your working yarn is waiting for you to work a wrong-side row back across the sleeve to start the pattern.

Option #3: Picking up and knitting all in one motion
I like this the best because it is the most efficient use of time. However, there is often quite a bit more manhandling of the fabric involved and can be somewhat tricky if you are not quite sure in which bump you are picking up.

Like with option 2, stick your knitting needle into the appropriate bump as if to knit.



Now, with your working yarn at the ready, wrap the yarn around the needle just like you were knitting (which, in fact, you are). Here comes the tough part. You need to get that loop around the needle out from under the bump and squarely onto the right hand needle as a full-fledged knit stitch. The trick: firmly grasp the knitted fabric with your left hand and give it a tug down and to your left (not too hard) just enough to open up that bump/loop and let you slip the right hand needle out. This is just like knitting except that your left hand has to do the work of the left needle in giving you a clear loop through which to work.

See the tug:



At the end you have a knit stitch without having to move it from one needle (or crochet hook to the other).

None of these options is any better or worse than any other. One might work better for a particular type of yarn, etc. Just pick whichever one feels most comfortable. And remember - if something doesn't work, just frog it. After all, it is not as if you have to worry about undoing an entire sweater accidentally, at worst it is just a few stitches.

What is that green garter stitch at the top of the post? My Baby Surprise Jacket. It turns out that I have the attention span of a gnat and could only remember to work shaping on one end of the row for the last few garter ridges and I am going to have to frog a bit. I just do not have the heart to do it tonight.

Tutorial: A new neck

It is time to work the neck for the Baby Boatneck sweater. The last time I made this pattern I was unhappy with the pattern directions, not because they were poorly written (quite the contrary, they were pleasantly straightforward) but because I was not thrilled with the result. According to the pattern, on a right side (RS) row you knit X stitches, bind off Y stitches, and then knit (X-1) stitches to finish off the row. Then on the next row (WS) you knit X stitches, cast on Y stitches, and then knit (X-1) stitches to finish off the row. The hole for the head appears in the middle of of the garter ridge.

This time around, I have two goals: (1) have a more solid cast-on to complete the neck shaping and (2) have the line between sweater front and sweater back lie between two garter ridges rather in the middle of one.

Here, I decided to bind off on a WS row and cast on on the following RS row to place the neck opening between two garter ridges. In order to have a more solid cast on, I will join an extra strand of the working color on the cast on row so that I can work a long-tail cast on instead of the backwards loop cast on called for by the pattern. How? Watch and see. Look here for my tutorial on knitting in ends.

I bound off with a periwinkle stripe and now am starting a green stripe for the cast on row. In my right hand I have the working yarn and the tail end of the yarn from the other end of the ball.



In my left hand I have the yarn from the end of the ball and the tail of the now-discarded periwinkle from the previous row that need to be woven in. As I work the next X stitches (11 in my case), I knit in the purple and second green strands.

Once the 11 stitches are worked I have two strands of green waiting for me at the left side of the right hand needle:



See the back:



Now, since I have two strands of green at my disposal, I can work a long-tail cast on for Y stitches as called for by the pattern (38 in my case).



The long-tail cast on is the equivalent of a backwards loop cast on followed by a row of knitting. It is that extra stitch (or rather its equivalent in the long-tail cast on) that makes the cast on more secure.



Once I have cast on my Y stitches, I knit in the extra strand (the one from the outside of the green ball) across the last (X-1) stitches of the row. See the tail where I have cut off the extra:



I work the next row across in the green to finish off the neck (technically it was done at the end of the last row) by knitting across the side stitches and the new cast on stitches for the other side of the neck.



Now all I have to do is keep working the stripes in pattern until the two sides of the neck opening are the same length. The tricky part is done. See: a neck.

Tutorial: Knitting in Ends

I do not particularly care for weaving in 5 billion ends when I finish a project, especially when that project involves multiple colors of yarn that come in and out for short periods and leave ends right and left. So, in order to avoid some hassle and unladylike language when I have finished the knitting I try to cheat a bit. knitting in the ends as I go works pretty well in garter stitch because the texture of the stitch hides the bit of extra bulk that goes along with the technique. That bulk usually keeps me from knitting in ends when I work stockinette stitch because the extra yarn is much more apparent. There I prefer spit-splicing but that is for another day.

On with the tutorial. I am working on the Cozy Boatneck Sweater from Itty-Bitty Nursery. The pattern involves stripes of garter ridges and there are plenty of ends to deal with as the colors change.

I usually start this technique 2 stitches in from the edge in order to avoid too many tension problems at the edge of the piece. Start by knitting the first two stitches of the new row. In my right hand I have the working yarn and in my left I have the ends that I want to weave in:



Here I am weaving in two ends at once, the end tail of a color that I am finished with (navy) and the beginning piece of the light purple that I am joining.



I like to hold the ends between the middle and ring fingers of my left hand to maintain tension while I knit.



Insert the right needle into the next stitch on the left needle as if to knit. Then, using your left hand, bring the ends around the back of the right needle tip and up over the needle.



Now hold the ends down and out of the way below the needle and bring the working yarn around the right needle tip as you would to knit.





Using your left hand, bring the ends back up over the right needle tip so that they cross over the working yarn behind the right needle.



Here you reverse the motion that you used to wrap the ends up above. There you wrapped from right to left around the needle and here you unwrap from left to right.

Now bring the newly knitted stitch through the loop on the left and off the left needle, just like if you were knitting regularly. The ends are held safely in the back of the work with your left hand.



The next stitch is easy - just hold the ends out of the way with your left hand and knit the next stitch.



Repeat this two-stitch pattern [wrap 1, knit 1] four or five times to secure the ends. You can always wrap more but I would not want to do less than this for fear of the yarn coming out after the garment has been worn. When you are done wrapping, just drop the ends and continue knitting.

This is what the back looks like. You can see that the ends are caught in the back of the loops that go over the needle to make the knit stitches.


When you are done with the piece, block it if you are so inclined and then trim the ends flush with the back of the fabric. It is a great feeling knowing that you only have to trim those ends instead of having to weave them in.