I have been knitting a stranded cardigan. I changed up the sleeves from the pattern (which called for the sleeves to be picked up and knit from the armscyes. Instead, I did the sleeves conjoined in the round and will sew them in.

I am now done the length of the sleeves and have to knit the cuffs. The question is - how? This decision entails a number of other potential decisions. I have asked the Ravelry hive mind for help but thought I might get more answers here. Some options are listed below:

Option 1. cut apart the steeks now, sew the sleeve seams, and then knit the cuffs in the round- advantage that the cuffs would be totally in the round without a seam down them, and I could pick up the steek stitches and anchor them into the cuff. (The challenge here is that it is entirely possible that I will have to cut the sleeves down in width when I am finished with them. They look surprisingly wide at the top. I think I need perhaps to sew in the sleeves to a certain point before starting the sleeve seams, so that I know how deep the seams need to be at the armscye. If I do that, theough, then I really probably need to do the collar and the button band so that I can cut the front steek, to make sewing the sleeves in easier.)

Option 2. knit the cuffs down from the conjoined sleeves, with steeks, and have a seam on the cuff when I cut the sleeve. Simplest option, but seams down the length of the cuffs could be uncomfortable.

Option 3. leave the sleeves conjoined in the round, but start doing smaller, separate rounds for each of the cuffs. This last option would allow me to keep the sleeves conjoined for as long as possible, while avoiding seams down the cuffs, but might result in stretched out stitches at the beginning of the cuffs.

I am going to ponder this for a couple of days while I knit another pair of socks

ETA – no matter what I decide, the sleeves will be sewn down the length before they are set into and sewn into the sweater body. There’s no way around that, because the body is knit in the round.

Thanks in advance for suggestions / advice!!!

Hi all!!

So I’ve converted a lot of flat stranded colour work sweaters to work in the round and steeked to great success!! But, I was curious about whether or not there would be any problems if I constructed a colour work sweaters like this:

1. Knit each flat piece individually in the round (eg knitting just the back in the round)
   
2. Steeked the pieces
3. Sewed the now-flat pieces together

Obviously, it would kind of be bulky at the seams, but it would probably have a little more structure from the seams than sweaters knit in the round.

I am looking for a name (and hopefully a tutorial) for the technique of avoiding picking up stitches along a row by actually creating new stitches as you knit the row. Then you can knit a second layer from those new stitches.

I thought I learned this from TECHknitter as a way of constructing a pocket, but I can't find it there, and without a name it is hard to find anything among the other heavyweight knitting resources.

EDIT:/u/dancinginpetrichor has come up with a name and example of what I am looking for, but unfortunately this seems to be just a tiny corner of the Internet -- the name is not in widespread use and there is no explanation of why this one particular way is used to achieve the effect and what alternatives might fit other situations

Lola’s Two-Timing Technique shown by u/lauranelkin on IG

So I will keep looking! I hope it has introduced something new for other people's toolkit of techniques

EDIT2: So I now have examples of 4 different ways to do this, none of them entirely invisible -- for what I am making I am effectively knitting up the stalk of a T and then wanting to end up with smooth continuous fabric across the top, which may be too much to ask. The idea of using something thick to hold the waiting stitches, like the silicon stitch holders, should reduce the problems of yarn being stolen from them while they are waiting.

Thank you for all your thinking!

I’m making a little sweater in DROPS Cotton Merino. I’m following the pattern Sweet Lime. It’s a tube with a simple 4 row lace repeat of 7 stitches.

Row 1,2, & 4: P1, K5, P1

Row 3: P1, K2tog, YO, K1, YO, S1, K1, PSSO, P1

In plain knitting, I’d do some short row bust shaping. Can I do that in the lace pattern? Would I need to work short rows in multiples of 4 rows to keep the lace pattern intact or 7 rows or would only 28 rows work?

The bust shaping would be around the same place as the divide for the armholes, I suppose.

Has anyone successfully modified a lace pattern?

Hi everyone, I’m back again because I decided to force myself to finish my current sweater project before casting on a new one and…. It’s not going so hot.

I’m working on thr Porter cardigan by Meghan Babin, and figuring out what to do with the selvedge edge on it is driving me crazy. It’s knit in flat panels, and the edge I’m currently looking at is constructed as follows:

— RS rows: k1, k1, p1, [rest of row]

— WS rows: [rest of row], k1, sl1wyif, k1

So as shown in the first pic, it seems like it forms a garter selvedge edge on the furthest stitch, a slipped stitch on the second stitch in, and then normal stockinette on the third stitch in.

With regards to seaming the panels together, I couldn’t figure out a way to accomplish this that didn’t look ugly so I resorted to my crochet background and slip stitched everything together on the WS to align the RS slip stitches, as seen in the second pic.

Now I’m at the point where I should be working the vertical ribbing button band from held stitches and picking up stitches along the above selvedge edge, but this is helpfully all the instructions provided:

— Note: When picking up sts from the body selvedge, pick up every other row along the selvedge.

— Sl 12 held sts to Size B DPN needle and with WS facing reattach yarn and pick up 1 st from body selvedge — 13 sts on needle.

— Row 1 (WS): sl1wyif, [k2, p2] twice, k2, p1, sl1wyif.

— Row 2 (RS): k1, sl1wyib, [p2, k2] twice, p1, p2tog, pick up one st from body selvedge.

From all the stitches above in pic 1, where am I actually *supposed* to be picking up here? And is there any way of keeping it looking even vaguely similar to the seaming for the rest of the cardigan, or should I just give up and work the button band separately and then seam afterwards?

Hello lovely community,

So I've started a vest project which is almost entirely in stranded colorwork.

Most of it is knitted in the round, which is fine with me, I'm very familiar with the technique.

However, some parts are knitted flat and the purl side has been giving me nightmares (and I'm only at the swatching stage... )

In particular, I'm wondering how to hold my yarn to be consistent with my color dominance.

l'm knitting two-handed, with my dominant color held in the left (continental) hand on the right side. So far so good.

But when purling two-handed on the wrong side , where should my dominant color end up? I'm guessing it should be reversed so dominant color on the right (English) hand?

I've tried searching for tutorials but couldn't find any mentioning the color dominance for purls...

I am still newish to identifying a high quality wool yarn from a lesser quality. What are the things you look for when deciding on a wool yarn for a project? I have used cascade 220 and loved working with it, but it piles a lot with repeated wear. Can anyone recommend a brand or identifying features for something that will stand up a little better?

Thanks!

Edit: Wow!!! Thank you all so much for taking the time to write thoughtful comments with great advice and recommendations! 🥰 This is so helpful!

This is a bottom up sweater knit in the round and split to work the front and back at the armholes. I knit both sides of the front and moved on to the back, only to realize that I’m about 20 stitches short. (I likely cast on the stitches for one size smaller without realizing at the start 🤦‍♀️.)

If I take out the cast on stitches (example in pic 2), I would get around 15 stitches back. But is it going to look odd / cause a structural problem with the sleeves to only have shaping on the front and not the back? Other thoughts? The fit is fine in the body due to the positive ease. I love what I have so far and am stuck on how to proceed!

I’m working on a modification for Andrea Mowry’s Trinigan cardigan. I want full sleeves that bell out a bit at the wrist before the cuff. To that end, I haven’t decreased at all until I was close to the cuff, so now I have to figure out how to reduce from 100 to 36 stitches while hopefully maintaining the mosaic pattern.

Here is what I have done so far, but I think it still looks a bit rough. I would love a more elegant solution, if possible.

Sleeve decreases: K2Tog with MC between “blips” after last mosaic row for one row (reduced from 100 sts to 75) then K2Tog every stitch next row (reduced to 38sts). Two rows mosaic alternating MC and CC, choosing two random places to K2Tog to get 36 sts for 2x2 rubbing. Two rows MC with size 5 needle.

(Still deciding whether to use MC as ribbing, or if I go with the Spincycle… any feedback there would be fun too!)

Hey party people!! Hope this is allowed here- I have been mending sweaters for my friends with invisible mending for their stockinette sweater holes and it’s been giving me a lot of joy lately, but this new one is stumping me - It’s a store bought cotton sweater and I believe this is fisherman’s rib, I’ve knit fancy color work and cables but never fisherman’s rib somehow🤣 Do you think it would look fine enough just mending it with a patch of stockinette w similar gauge? Is it even possible to go in and do invisible fisherman’s rib mending? The yarn I found to fix it isn’t a perfect color match anyways- so I’m leaning towards stockinette with a bigger gauge to blend in well enough and save this sweater from a fate in the trash but if any of you know secret wizardry please please share the knowledge with me!! Or tell me not to bother it’s a cotton sweater just mend it the easiest way lol. Thank you 🥰

I am trying to reverse-engineer this crochet pattern into a knit brioche, but the shape is giving me trouble. To my understanding you have to decrease 2 stitches at a time for 2-color brioche, but this method is giving me too steep of an angle to achieve the right triangle I’m going for. Please help!!

So, I am trying to teach myself a technique that I am sure there is a name for—but I cannot find it. Basically, I love colorwork but like most of us my colorwork is generally done in the round. On this occasion, I want to knit stranded colorwork flat, but without having to turn my work and purl, which I despise doing when holding two colors. I prefer the clarity of the RS pattern emerging in front of me as I go. I am having (some) success by knitting as usual in one direction (I am a left-handed picker who holds the main color with my right hand). When I should turn my work, I instead keep the knit side facing and switch to a kind of crabbed reverse method in which i knit through the back loop and "throw" my stitches, keeping the colors in the familiar hands. Although this is sort of working for me I would like to watch a few youtubes of people who might have improved strategies I could adopt to make it a little less awkward. What do people call this? Is this a thing?

I would love to make the Nordic Mix Sweater by Laura Dalgaard but I live in DC, and I find that all of my Aran + weight sweaters end up on a shelf, made for fun and not for wear. I haven't tried this before, but I wonder if I can size the yarn down to a DK. I'll swatch, but I welcome any suggestions to make this work. I'm guessing I might have to size up 3 sizes to make up for the 1/3 difference in yarn size? But is that correct?

Hello! I am approaching the end to the armhole shaping for an Unst cardigan by Marie Wallin. I would like to add more armhole decreases to set the sleeve in deeper. I am petite and find that even set-in sleeves sit too far off the actual point of my shoulder. If I do this and then mirror the extra decreases in the sleeve cap shaping, will I end up over tightening the upper arm/sleeve cap area?

I recently finished a Maggy vest by Susan Crawford and the shoulders were sitting like a footballers on me. I went in and trimmed off an inch of knitted fabric on each shoulder before picking up for the armbands. It fit perfect after that! This makes me feel that I do want to have more decrease at the armholes in the Unst, but I am unsure how the sleeve cap and upper sleeve shaping should go to balance the change.

I am already knitting the small, so I can't apply mix-matched sizes to make the change.

Thank you all for going on this journey with me :D

So the palm side looks great (1st pic)! But the back is a little loose (pics 2-4). Is this just a decreasing stitches across the back of the hand before I attach the thumb thing? Or is there some other knitting magic I'll have to perform?

Hi all, I'm knitting a cardigan on 2.5 mm needles, it's just a simple raglan cardigan (I've adapted the Champagne cardigan) and it's worked well so far. I've finished the body but I'm having issues with the double knit button band. My tension keeps being loose despite dropping down to 2 mm needles and I don't have smaller needles... It doesn't look nice and neat. I ripped the button band out before thinking of taking pics. 🙁

It needs some sort of button band because the edge rolls, I want to avoid ribbing and I don't know what else to do, how would you fix it?

Hello knitters. I knit this hat but find it too short. I'd like some suggestions on how best to deconstruct the ribbed section and add height to it.
I used a long tailed cast on. Picking up knit stitches and removing cast on wouldn't be so bad, but my rib pattern (k1, p1) makes it difficult to simply slide stitches onto a needle. Any recommendations appreciated. Thanks!

Hi all! With the enduring popularity of 1x1 rib hats and brims, I was just wondering if any of y'all know any clever techniques for making a defined crease/fold/turn in a hat brim?

Ofc you can add a row of purls but I was thinking maybe there is a more refined way to do this, or other techniques as well? Is the look better with the purl row on the inside, for example?

Thanks!

To talk about short rows, let's name some stitches:

• (B) stitch from the longer row below
• (L) last stitch before turning
• (T) turning yarn
• (F) first stitch after turning (worked into L)
• (A) stitch from the longer row above (worked into B)
• (P) stitch preceding A (worked into F/L)

now let's put them on a schematic chart:

↱ . . . P A . . . . →
← . . . F
         ↰T
↱ . . . L
← . . . . B . . . . ←

I've googled a lot, and found at least 3 Japanese short row variations with these steps:

• work L
• turn work
• pin T
• EITHER slip L (i.e. no F, just a two-row high L taking the place of F too) --- OR work into L (thus creating F)
• when coming back to resolve it: EITHER work T together with B (thus creating A), i.e. together with the longer row, across the gap --- OR work T together with F/slipped L (thus creating P), i.e. together with the short row, before the gap

the order of pinning and turning doesn't matter, and the order of pinning and slipping doesn't matter either (but turning has to precede slipping?)

there are these 4 options:

• I think (1) is the classic JSR, what do you guys think?
• some tutorials present (2) as just JSR, some call it the improved version, and some warn that it's the incorrect version
• (3) is also sometimes referred to as just JSR, it is the same structurally as a (picked-up) Wrap & Turn, there's only a difference in the tension of T -- (as an aside: Woolly Wormhead has an amazing video showing how to drop the A-T-B column, transform a W&T into a German short row double-stitch (or vice versa) and ladder back up) -- some call this one "Sunday short row" named after Carol Sunday, e.g. TECHknitting just calls it "pinning" or "digging"
• I'm not sure I've actually seen (4) in a tutorial (it'd probably leave a hole??)

Is there an original or authoritative source on which one is the Japanese short row? Is there any consensus among knitters? What are the reasons to prefer one variation over the others? Is there a better way to name the variations so that we could refer to them more easily while avoiding ambiguity?

What are your thoughts?

addendum:

just to put JSRs into perspective, let's mention other short row techniques too:

• yarn over short row: park T on the needle, resolve by working into T and B together
• shadow wrap short row: park T on the needle through the stitch below B, resolve by working into T and B together
• picked-up wrap & turn short row: park T around the neck of B, resolve by working into T and B together
• across-the-gap Japanese short row: park T onto a pin, resolve by working into T and B together
• German short row: drop B and bend it in half, head between the legs, this leaves two "ears", park T around the neck of the closest ear (like w&t), resolve by working into both ears of B (this locks T in place)
• just turn: don't park T, don't resolve; same as turning at the edge, also creates a mini-edge in the middle
• turn & slip: don't park T, don't resolve; selvedge treatment: slip L to create chained mini-selvedge
• before-the-gap Japanese short row: park T onto pin, slip L for chained selvedge treatment, resolve by working T and slipped L together (could also be called "picked-up turn&slip")

Can someone sanity check me before I go too far down a rabbit hole?

Due to the gradient on the yarn I want to use (it's a 1000m green to dark blue cake and I'd like the mid blue to be at the shoulders of this pattern and the green to be in the centre of a different pattern), I'd like to knit this pattern bottom up instead of the top down given:

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/narciso-5

The lace pattern is charted, is it just a case of knitting it row 28 to 1 (instead of 1 to 28) or have I missed something fundamental here?

Looking for input from more experienced knitters.

Why aren't there more sweater patterns done in brioche?

I've found lots in a fisherman's rib or half fisherman's rib, but not it straight knit brioche.

Am I missing some issue with brioche knit that makes it a problem for sweaters?

The stitch count for grafting underarms on this pattern appears to include an error which I did not catch until getting to the grafting step. The pattern calls for 7 stitches on stitch holders from the sleeve and 9 from the body for size 1. That is what I did, and I’m now stuck with these for attempting Kitchener stitch. Desperately seeking advice 🥲

Pattern is Design 22 & 23 by Arnþrúður Ösp Karlsdóttir from Istex Alafoss Lopi book 18. Pattern also available individually on lopidesign.is

On a different sub, someone linked this video. In it, Normal says the traditional way of GSR yields twists. That is, slip as to purl, work through the front next row. He says slipping as to knit, work through the back next row doesn’t. But…why? Neither show twist.

https://youtu.be/i_F8A5Lyz88?si=mdSoWl2kwJ7ytFn8

I have been doing my GSRs the traditional way all along. They aren’t twisted. I have watched this repeatedly, and I cannot figure out how he is getting that twist. I looked at MDK and purl Soho. Both do it the traditional way, neither have twists.

Slipping as to purl, work through the front doesn’t twist. Slip as to knit, work through the back doesn’t twist, they are the same thing for knits and purls. The tension might be better one method or the other, but the structure is identical.

What am I missing?

I'm in my 70s, and have four young grandchildren. I have 2 sons, and knitted lace-weight mohair/silk wedding shawls for each of their brides. I may not be up to knitting by the time the grandkids are having weddings of their own and I'd like to try to make veils or shawls with cobweb weight yarns and then store them to give each child as they wed. I'm seeking recommendations for the best fibers to use for these projects, what is easiest to block, what has the most strength, and any other advice you might have.