Knitting -- top down and the "make 1"

So I found Garnstudio's patterns for Norwegian pullovers with yokes, some of which are worked top down, and I hoped that I would find videos that would help me see what to do. It didn't work but I'll save the editorial for the next post or you might wind up feeling like I did.

Top-down is perfect for raglan sleeves. Once you knit the neck, you mark where the back and front of the sleeves will be. Then you increase on each side of the markers to add the sleeve tops at the same time as you expand out for the body. 

It took me about four tries to get this started correctly because I'm terrible at math & I had to learn a new stitch.

First, the cast-on has to be big enough to go over my head. In worsted yarn, I need the body to be 200 stitches around for a 40 inch chest. When I work bottom up, I knit off 23 stitches at each shoulder (46) times two because I knit the front and back together at the shoulders. So the number of stitches left for the collar are 108.

Cable on 108 stitches to a size 5 circular needle with a 16 inch tether. Join them and mark that for the back of the jumper so you know when you've started a new round..
Do k2/p2 rib for 6 rounds, then change to a size 7 circular with a 16-inch tether and knit a stabilizing round.

Knit 19 stitches, set a marker, k16, set a marker, k 38 stitches, set a marker, k16, set a marker, then knit to the center back. Now you have your sleeve stitches marked off from your body stitches. Also run a piece of yarn down the center back so you know when you've started a new round.

Now start increasing as follows.
Knit to, but not including, the stitch before the marker.
Now spread your work a little and you'll see a piece of yarn that connects the stitch you just knitted into, and the stitch next to the marker.

Make 1 (m1) into that bit of yarn by slipping your needle under it and knitting it. One body stitch added.

Knit the next stitch, transfer the marker, and knit 1.

Now do another m1 to add one stitch in the sleeve.
Finish the round, increasing on both sides of every marker.
When you have finished the increase round, you have added 8 stitches.

Now knit 1 round and repeat these two rounds. The photo shows the finished neck and the top of the sleeve with the increases. Also notice the toothing where I joined the first two colors and the alternating colors where I started the third.
 

At some point you'll want to change to a size 7 with a longer tether, I guarantee it.
Keep this up until you have 100 stitches for the front and back of the jumper.
For my pattern, I wanted 80 stitches in the arms.
But I got to 100 before I got to 80.

So I stopped increasing outside the markers and kept increasing between the markers until I got there.
Then I knitted 50 stitches from the center back, put the arm stitches on a holder, and cast on 8.
Knit 100 stitches, put the arm on a holder, cast on 8, and knit 50 stitches to the middle of the back.

Here's the bottom of one sleeve showing the holder.

You now have 8 stitches extra in the body. We're going to take out the four just under the arm; we'll take out the other four before the bottom rib.
So knit to the cast-ons, k1 sl 1 k1 psso k2 k2tog k1 k100 to the other underarm.
Repeat the decreases that are underlined.
Knit 95 rounds for the body, make another set of decreases, k2/p2 rib to finish and bind off in rib.

Switch to size 7 circular needle with a 16 inch tether.
Pick up the 8 underarm stitches setting a marker in the middle, and the stitches on the holder.
Count the stitches. You want 56 at the cuff so subtract that out. Now you know how many stitches you have to decrease.
Divide by 2 and you know how many ROUNDS need decreases.
Count 23 rows from the neck to the point of the shoulder, and then count how many arm rows you knitted after that.
You need 165 rows for a 21 inch arm so subtract out the arm rows you already knitted.

Divide that number by how many ROUNDS need decreases and you know how many rows to leave between decrease  rounds.
Knit one stabilizing round.
When you get to the underarm marker, k1 k2tog and knit around.  Three stitches before the underarm marker slip 1 k1 psso k1.
That's a decrease round.

Work down the sleeve doing your decreases; at some point you'll split the stitches up between three size 7 DP needles because the tether will be holding the sleeve too stiff to work easily.
When you get to the cuff switch to size 5 DP needles and work 8 rounds of k2/p2 rib. Bind off in rib.

Here is the result in leftover yarns. Notice how the bands in the sleeves line up with the bands on the body. Here is how much yarn it took.
Cloud: 1 skein did the neck and shoulders, total of 27 rounds.
Peapod: 1 skein did 20 rows including the top of the sleeves.
Grass: 1.5 skeins did 10 rows including sleeves.
Jalapeno: 1 skein did 7 rows including the bottom of the sleeves, plus the first 2 body rows under the arms.
Forest Heather: 3 skeins did 28 rows each body and sleeves
Chocolate: 3 skeins; 1 skein did 21 rounds and most of the 22^nd in the body. 1 skein did 28 rounds in the sleeves with leftovers to finish out 28 rounds in the body.
Coal: 3 skeins did 30 rounds in body and sleeves and the rib on the bottom.
YMMV due to differing measurements.
 

I normally need 13 skeins for a bottom-up pullover with steeking.


This sweater was still in progress when I took the shot. It's a shorty and you can see the sharp contrast between using up the earth tones and using up the other two colors. It's not a combination I would have planned to make, so I will probably wear this into pills on autumn walks or around the house and yard.

Next time, the editorial.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved