What's Special About This Sweater

Little Painted Sweater in new construction method

I haven't said why I am writing this sweater pattern, and why it's special and unique. So here goes: This pattern came about as a way to make sweaters fit me better, as I like a tailored fit. Knitting my own sweaters was revolutionary to me: I suddenly had a waist, and didn't look like a blob in sweaters. I've also developed a fascination with structure and construction techniques. The red sweater shown here is knit in this technique, and is very similar to the sweater I'm designing. It is in Painted Desert by Knitting Fever. A friend gave me a bunch of partial skeins, and I took that as a challenge. Aside from that, I used a slipped-stitch pattern that I changed at the sleeves, to accentuate (though very subtly) the shape of the sleeve. I think it's my response to something about circular yoke sweaters in which the patterns continue too far down the sleeves. Great on a very cold day, but not so dressy. (Don't get me wrong: I can't do stranded work without a struggle, so I absolutely appreciate the designs and craft of putting them together!) This has a much tailored look, which I have come to prefer.

I have knitted both raglan and circular yoke sweaters, and I like most aspects of both. With circular yoke sweaters, I wanted to eliminate extra fabric in the back, and so (if I remembered) I eliminated the increases in the middle of the back. With raglans, without doing any shaping in front, they are very square,which I don't like. I learned about raising the neckline at the back, which I've used on a couple of sweaters. I followed a pattern by Asa Tricosa, and learned to do a seamless set-in sleeve. From there I played with squaring off the circular yoke using short rows. I got some ideas on how to do this from the POP blanket, in which each knit circle is knit out to a square. I really like the look and fit of a set-in sleeve, and I like the curve of the circular yoke. So, why not combine them? The nice thing about top-down sweaters is that you can try them on to see how they fit, and how much more to knit before you move on to the next step. Of course this is easiest if you are making things for yourself. But you can also measure the length between shoulder caps on another person (or one of their garments) and measure the sweater as you make it, keeping in mind your before- and after-blocking stitch gauges.

Today I set up all my measurements and stitch counts for six sizes in an Excel table. Nothing makes me happier than using Excel, and fine-tuning all of my calculations in a nice neat table sort of makes my day -- and certainly made it a breeze. Plugging them back in to the sweater instructions will be easy. It was good to start out with the Word file, but massaging the numbers (making sure they calculate to odd or even numbers, etc.) is just kind of lovely and orderly. Aside from the concern about fit and increasing numbers in the right proportions, this is a piece of cake.