Project Bodemloos: Many fittings
Jan. 31st, 2017 11:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzAs mentioned in my previous post, I'm casting on a size smaller than I normally would, to make up for a gauge difference of 1 stitch per 10 cm.
But as you all know, I'm rather tall and build to some kind of Valkyrie mold. It would probably be wise to check the fit regularly.
The pattern starts with a series of short rows so the back neckline is higher up than the front neckline. This is a rather ingeneous technique that is made all the more easy because of my experience with sock heels. The wrap & turn method, and subsequent picking up of the wrap around the stitch, is something that can be a little tricky.
After the short rows a couple of rounds and increases shape the rest of the raglan sleeve head before separating the sleeves from the body.
So...fitting. How does one do this fitting thing? I looked up Anemoona's old entry from when she was working on her Autumn Harlequin sweater, because she had the exact same question back then as I do right now: How high does the armscye have to sit?
A little YouTube search came up with the following video, which explains how to fit a top-down, one-piece sweater. (Hint: don't do it on a mannequin!)
Following the pattern exactly got me this far (how pretty is that neckline?!!):
At the time, I read the pattern wrong and thought that I needed to cast on 6 stitches to bridge the underarm gap. That would probably make my armscye way too tight! But there is no written rule on how high or low your armscye needs to be, so I posted on Ravelry, looked at pictures, and used my dressmaking knowledge. For a relaxed armscye, we increase armscye depth and sometimes even add some of the bust dart to widen the armscye during the pattern making phase. So I was in no way stuck on the thought of having a tight armscye -- afraid of not being able to move.
Pro tip: Jane, you're not knitting your size. You're only sort-of knitting your size. You hope to lose weight so it will be a baggy sweater. How big a deal is this armscye thingy?
I decided to repeat the final increase instruction, which read "increase once every four rows for 1 time". That meant adding 4 more rows to the armscye depth and increasing by 8 stitches across the entire round. So not only would my armscye be more relaxed, my sleeve and body would also increase slightly in size.
I hate tight sleeves that squeeze and are uncomfortable. I have to wrestle with my long sleeves pretty much every morning and it gets old really fast!
Then I was here:
This is after my extra increases, with the sleeves saparated from the body, and two rows on to get a feeling of what size this would be. Of course, the feedback I got from Ravelry members is that two rows can still stretch a lot, and it would look more true (as in: not stretched out) when I was 10 rows on.
*Sigh*
So I ploughed on, all determined, and this is where I was last night.
And you know what strikes me most?
Every picture is very different! The armscye seems really big with just a few rows under the arm, but as the rows under the arm grow taller, the armscye seems to shrink again. If my arm is up this high, it's bigger than when it's up that high. And there's no telling how big it'll be with a sleeve picked up from there, until there's actually a sleeve picked up from there.
Also, my cable, as long and flexible as it is, is really warping the fabric as I struggle to get an angle of my armpit, so I can't really tell whether this will fit nicely or not.
And then I realised that this is all pre-blocking. When the finished piece is done I'll toss it into a luke-warm (30°C) bath, leave it to soak and relax for half an hour, and then it's a completely different gauge! So there's really not that much I can tell from these pictures anyway.
That said, people on Ravelry have been tremendously helpful, so I'll post a few of the helpful comments here:
- Textileartist said: "In my experience, the armscye is always larger than it looks to be during fitting. So I always knit it slightly larger to compensate."
- Spectre120 said: "If they ask for so much wearing ease, I would keep the armscye on the large side. Otherwise, you'll get excess fabric bulk under the arm."
- Aafke7 sent me a personal message to share her experience: "A larger armscye is more comfortable and will felt less quickly under the arm. This is often overlooked. For my size, 19 centimeter armscye depth is recommended, but I often choose for 20 or 21 centimeter armscye depth."
Interesting stuff all around!
At the recommendation of Tyldak, I had also tossed my gauge swatch into the washing machine. This yarn is hand-wash only, Peruvian highland wool, and pretty much all of the comments state that it does not pill. However, what does it do in the washing machine?
I washed it on the wool wash program when I was washing the wool socks (hand-knit or no), set to 30 °C. And I can report that it looks pretty similar, although I do feel the stitches are slightly warped somehow. And my gauge swatch has shrunk to exactly the recommended gauge in the pattern!! How cruel and unusual is that!?
So next up for me is to 'just keep knitting...' until I hit the hem. The first 5 centimeters under the armscye are done, which means I'll increase every 10 rows until I hit the right number of stitches to get a pretty A-line sweater. And if it turns out to be completely the wrong size after the initial blocking, I'll threaten to throw it in the wool wash if it doesn't behave!
My next update will probably be a good while into the future, since I'm a tall girl and it's boring stockinette stitch all the way down to the hem. It's a good thing I have an expert to help me with that:
But as you all know, I'm rather tall and build to some kind of Valkyrie mold. It would probably be wise to check the fit regularly.
The pattern starts with a series of short rows so the back neckline is higher up than the front neckline. This is a rather ingeneous technique that is made all the more easy because of my experience with sock heels. The wrap & turn method, and subsequent picking up of the wrap around the stitch, is something that can be a little tricky.
After the short rows a couple of rounds and increases shape the rest of the raglan sleeve head before separating the sleeves from the body.
So...fitting. How does one do this fitting thing? I looked up Anemoona's old entry from when she was working on her Autumn Harlequin sweater, because she had the exact same question back then as I do right now: How high does the armscye have to sit?
A little YouTube search came up with the following video, which explains how to fit a top-down, one-piece sweater. (Hint: don't do it on a mannequin!)
Following the pattern exactly got me this far (how pretty is that neckline?!!):
At the time, I read the pattern wrong and thought that I needed to cast on 6 stitches to bridge the underarm gap. That would probably make my armscye way too tight! But there is no written rule on how high or low your armscye needs to be, so I posted on Ravelry, looked at pictures, and used my dressmaking knowledge. For a relaxed armscye, we increase armscye depth and sometimes even add some of the bust dart to widen the armscye during the pattern making phase. So I was in no way stuck on the thought of having a tight armscye -- afraid of not being able to move.
Pro tip: Jane, you're not knitting your size. You're only sort-of knitting your size. You hope to lose weight so it will be a baggy sweater. How big a deal is this armscye thingy?
I decided to repeat the final increase instruction, which read "increase once every four rows for 1 time". That meant adding 4 more rows to the armscye depth and increasing by 8 stitches across the entire round. So not only would my armscye be more relaxed, my sleeve and body would also increase slightly in size.
I hate tight sleeves that squeeze and are uncomfortable. I have to wrestle with my long sleeves pretty much every morning and it gets old really fast!
Then I was here:
This is after my extra increases, with the sleeves saparated from the body, and two rows on to get a feeling of what size this would be. Of course, the feedback I got from Ravelry members is that two rows can still stretch a lot, and it would look more true (as in: not stretched out) when I was 10 rows on.
*Sigh*
So I ploughed on, all determined, and this is where I was last night.
And you know what strikes me most?
Every picture is very different! The armscye seems really big with just a few rows under the arm, but as the rows under the arm grow taller, the armscye seems to shrink again. If my arm is up this high, it's bigger than when it's up that high. And there's no telling how big it'll be with a sleeve picked up from there, until there's actually a sleeve picked up from there.
Also, my cable, as long and flexible as it is, is really warping the fabric as I struggle to get an angle of my armpit, so I can't really tell whether this will fit nicely or not.
And then I realised that this is all pre-blocking. When the finished piece is done I'll toss it into a luke-warm (30°C) bath, leave it to soak and relax for half an hour, and then it's a completely different gauge! So there's really not that much I can tell from these pictures anyway.
That said, people on Ravelry have been tremendously helpful, so I'll post a few of the helpful comments here:
- Textileartist said: "In my experience, the armscye is always larger than it looks to be during fitting. So I always knit it slightly larger to compensate."
- Spectre120 said: "If they ask for so much wearing ease, I would keep the armscye on the large side. Otherwise, you'll get excess fabric bulk under the arm."
- Aafke7 sent me a personal message to share her experience: "A larger armscye is more comfortable and will felt less quickly under the arm. This is often overlooked. For my size, 19 centimeter armscye depth is recommended, but I often choose for 20 or 21 centimeter armscye depth."
Interesting stuff all around!
At the recommendation of Tyldak, I had also tossed my gauge swatch into the washing machine. This yarn is hand-wash only, Peruvian highland wool, and pretty much all of the comments state that it does not pill. However, what does it do in the washing machine?
I washed it on the wool wash program when I was washing the wool socks (hand-knit or no), set to 30 °C. And I can report that it looks pretty similar, although I do feel the stitches are slightly warped somehow. And my gauge swatch has shrunk to exactly the recommended gauge in the pattern!! How cruel and unusual is that!?
So next up for me is to 'just keep knitting...' until I hit the hem. The first 5 centimeters under the armscye are done, which means I'll increase every 10 rows until I hit the right number of stitches to get a pretty A-line sweater. And if it turns out to be completely the wrong size after the initial blocking, I'll threaten to throw it in the wool wash if it doesn't behave!
My next update will probably be a good while into the future, since I'm a tall girl and it's boring stockinette stitch all the way down to the hem. It's a good thing I have an expert to help me with that:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2017-02-01 08:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-02-01 11:34 am (UTC)http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/dutch-wool-diva/1793795/1576-1600#1583
Zoals Abbesijn hier ook uitlegt.
no subject
Date: 2017-02-01 11:55 am (UTC)