Look at those ginormous needles! #10's. It's weird knitting with such thick yarn, and this stuff is barely spun at all. I like the pebbly fabric it creates - sure to disguise any lumpy knitting on my part.
So. What made me decide to leap in so lightly aided? Well. After all, it's just a sweater - it's just three tubes. But also, I'm pretty sure I've grasped the construction concepts in set in sleeve top-down knitting. What I did was measure my shoulder width - which is somewhere close to 16 inches - and I erred towards the larger - since this is supposed to go over top of turtle necks and t-shirts.
Using a crochet cast on, like I did for the Soho Dress I figured:
16 inches times 3.5 (gauge) was 59 stitches - which looked a little wide to me, so I dropped it back to 57.
A 4.5 inch wide neck opening had me putting two markers 16 stitches apart in the center. (K 19, pm, K16, pm, K19)
I did two pair of short rows at 4 stitch intervals and now I'm knitting straight. I will probably knit 8 inches and then begin widening the back to create the underarm stitches.
Then I'll remove the crochet cast on and pick up stitches for the front shoulders. I'll knit the two front sections with separate balls for 2.5 or 3 inches which ought to give me a jewel neckline that I hope will be wide enough to accommodate a garter stitch neckband. The good news is ... I 'll be able to try it on before I join the front sections!! If it needs to be bigger it'll mean ripping out only a few rows. Then I'll join in the front, adding 5 steek stitches to the center and knit down to the armhole shaping.
Okay - that's the plan for the weekend. One Happy Chanel Jacket coming up!
Won't I feel virtuous if I finish two whole garments this winter?
The Best of luck to you with your project.
ReplyDeleteI haven't yet done a top down sweater.
I usually like size 4-8 needles. So I understand where you are coming from with the size.
Can't wait to see your finished project.