Knitting -- shaping lightweight yarns

Last week I posted a sleeveless summer blouse pattern. and I had you set a center back marker but I didn't tell you what to do about it. Here is where I tell you.

One of the problems with knitted tops is that the back hem can ride up or the back neck droop down.

In old patterns like the Bantam encyclopedia, the Spinnerin book I wrote about, or the patterns on freevintageknitting, they deal with this as if you were working with woven fabric. They have you knit decreases at the neck in front so that the center front is lower than the center back.

But in countries with centuries of knitting experience, they don't waste their time on that. They knit the back to be higher. And you can't even tell the extra stitches are there if it's done right. Here are the photos of the backs of the two summer blouses. One has this "mid-back elevation". Can you tell which one?

It's the green one on the left. See how the back of the neck goes straight across, while the back of the purple droops? A mid-back elevation is a great shaping for these lightweight tops, but it's also terrific with sweaters that you button up the front where a drooping neck looks awful.

You will find instructions for the mid-back elevation in most of the DROPS patterns at the garnstudio site. Here's how I worked it for the green Lindy Chain summer top. If you don't remember how to wrap stitches, see the video link on this post.

Row 80 will be a purl row. On the next knit row,
Knit 19 stitches past center back marker, turn, wrap yarn
Purl 39. Turn, wrap yarn
Knit 58, turn, wrap yarn
Purl 77. Turn, wrap yarn
Knit 96, turn, wrap yarn
Purl 114, turn, wrap yarn
Knit across.  Work the last 5 rows and then do the front.

You can do mid-back elevations in other yarn weights; do your math to figure out how to fit this onto those stitch counts.

You can also do a mid-back elevation on a top-down piece. The issue with those are, you have to work them lower down so that you have enough stitches to work over. Here's my stitch count, which I used with a sweater. For a fingering weight yarn, this goes where you have at least 75 stitches between the markers for the backs of the sleeves.

Purl 25 stitches, turn, wrap stitch

Knit 37 stitches, turn, wrap stitch
Purl 49 stitches, turn, wrap stitch
Knit 61 stitches, turn, wrap stitch
Purl 73 stitches, turn, wrap stitch.

The other issue in shaping a sweater is shoulders. If you're knitting for the 40 inch chest of a guy, his shoulders are probably so broad that the shoulders will sit easily. Us gals may be different: I know my shoulders are narrower than my bust and the neck doesn't fit closely unless I shape the front above the armholes. There are three ways to do this.

1.  Knit off extra stitches at the shoulders. For a Comfy Fingering sweater, this means 35 stitches instead of 30. If you were going to put pads in the shoulders (shades of Dynasty!), this might be a good choice.
2.  For a bottom-up sweater, decrease at the armholes like you do for the sleeveless top, once in 3 rows for 10 rows starting 30 rows above the armpits.
3.  For a top-down sweater, increase before the button or buttonhole placket every 5 rows for 10 rows. (You are already increasing at the sleeves.)

The following page has other shaping ideas, including darts to keep tops from riding up in front.
http://knitty.com/ISSUEdf11/FEATgreatfit.php

A number of the top patterns at freevintageknitting.com also have side shaping. They have you do decreases and increases at the underarm, for the most part. If you do this, make a commitment never to gain any weight. With a top made of woven fabric, you can use the size larger version of your pattern and make deeper seam allowances, then let the top out at the sides if you gain weight. With knitting, you're SOL; you will either have to lose the weight (yeah right I hear that) or make a new top.

Some shaping helps make the top fit or hang right. Darts and body shaping, I'm not interested in. I like my winter sweaters boxy for layering, and my summer tops boxy so they don't hold in the heat. YMMV.