A Little More Knit, Swirl Math
Hello, Sheepies, especially those of you participating in the great Knit, Swirl! experiment! Last week (and last KAL session) we discussed how to adjust your number of stitches to make your sleeves the right length. Changing the number of stitches you cast on for the sleeves will force you to make two adjustments later in the pattern: you need to adjust how many stitches you work before and after binding off the neck, so your neck is still at the center of the garment and you need to alter the number of stitches you bind off when finishing the sleeves.
First: centering the neck.
There are two ways to adjust where to place the neck; choose whichever makes more sense to you. If neither make sense, please feel free to follow-up with us either online or in person.
Way #1: Count the number of stitches you have on your needle. Subtract the number of stitches that you will be binding off. Divide the remaining stitches by two. This number is how many stitches to work before you start the bind off and after you finish binding off. So, for Diana’s sweater, she has 260 stitches on her needle and is supposed to bind off 38 stitches. (260-38)/2 = 111, so she should work 111 stitches before starting her neck bind off.
Way #2: Either increase or decrease the number of stitches the pattern says to work by half of the number of stitches you used to adjust the sleeve length. Again, for Diana’s sweater, she had to decrease her sleeve cast on by 12 stitches. The pattern calls for her to work 117 stitches before starting the neck, so she needs to decrease that number by half of 12, or 6. If you had to add additional stitches to make your sleeves longer, you need to work more stitches to get to the neck than the pattern calls for.
Issue Two: Binding off at the end of the sleeves.
This is actually a very easy issue to handle; it is just important to remember to do it. At the end of the sleeves, you are going to bind off the stitches you cast on in reverse order. Over welts 49 and 50, the pattern calls for Diana to bind off 58 stitches, the same number she cast on over welts 35 and 36.
As you may recognize from last week’s post, the number of stitches being bound off for each row is the same as the number of stitches cast on, in reverse order. To make this fit Diana’s sweater, she will bind off in the same manner she cast on, in reverse order.
If you have any further questions about this or any other aspect of the Knit, Swirl sweater, please don’t hesitate to get in touch! We hope you’re having a good time working on the sweater and are staying warm as the weather gets cold!
