Darned Darts
Well, I've taken Eliz I out of time out despite the fact that she requires algebra. Even though I do statistics for a living, I loathe algebra. There has been an excel spreadsheet, conversions to and fro; I have bent my mind to think in units of 10cm and converted to inches just to make sure. I now know where I stand with this thing, and it's not half bad. Problem is, because I'm using a DK-weight yarn and knitting the smallest size, the decreases for the darts are too severe, and the distance the sweater tapers is greater than it should be. I need to eliminate decreases to keep from binding around the waist. This is further complicated by the fact that while I am knitting at 25sts/10cm (instead of the pattern's 27sts/10cm) in terms of stitch gauge, my row gauge is right on at 40rows/10cm.For those not familiar with this pattern, the pattern has long darts in the front and back as well as waist shaping at the sides.
So, I'm trying to decide which decreases to eliminate to keep the slope of the waist shaping from being too great. I need to decrease about 4 fewer stitches, on both the front and the back, than the pattern calls for. It seems you decrease at the edges once (2 sts), then start the darts (4 sts decreased) and side decreases (2 sts decreased) every roughly 7 rows a total of 5 times. I'm thinking I should eliminate the fifth decrease in the dart, and just have a long section in the middle where the dart is straight (I would of course also eliminate the mirror increase up above). The alternatives would be to skip the first and last dart and just shorten the dart, but I worry about that since my row gauge hasn't changed, and I'll actually be looking to fudge a small bit to make it longer anyway. I could also skip the initial 2-stitch side decrease, but I worry that will make the first dart decrease too severe, plus it only gets me halfway to my goal.
Is this just too insanely detailed and picky to make any sense? Does anyone have any advice? I may just go with my gut and if I hate it, rip it out, but man, I'd love to avoid that. Thanks in advance, oh wise knitters...
So, I'm trying to decide which decreases to eliminate to keep the slope of the waist shaping from being too great. I need to decrease about 4 fewer stitches, on both the front and the back, than the pattern calls for. It seems you decrease at the edges once (2 sts), then start the darts (4 sts decreased) and side decreases (2 sts decreased) every roughly 7 rows a total of 5 times. I'm thinking I should eliminate the fifth decrease in the dart, and just have a long section in the middle where the dart is straight (I would of course also eliminate the mirror increase up above). The alternatives would be to skip the first and last dart and just shorten the dart, but I worry about that since my row gauge hasn't changed, and I'll actually be looking to fudge a small bit to make it longer anyway. I could also skip the initial 2-stitch side decrease, but I worry that will make the first dart decrease too severe, plus it only gets me halfway to my goal.
Is this just too insanely detailed and picky to make any sense? Does anyone have any advice? I may just go with my gut and if I hate it, rip it out, but man, I'd love to avoid that. Thanks in advance, oh wise knitters...
posted by Unknown | 11:20 PM
3 Comments:
Cate, I think that you should take your own body shape into consideration when deciding where to eliminate some decreases. If you need more room for the boobs, then I'd keep the shaping on the darts and adjust the sideshaping. If you are average or less than well endowed, then I think that I would want to make the dart longer and straighter and keep the side shaping.
Does this make any sense?
Marji, I love that idea. I hadn't thought about that, but it's perfect for me, since I am nearly perfectly cylindrical, it seems (which is why I do like waist shaping, because it provides some illusion of waist), but there is significant boobage. So if I eliminate two waist decreases, maybe in the middle of the sweater, and keep the darts as is, I'll put the extra shaping where I need it the most, and retain the sense of waist shape that I like so much in this sweater.
Veddy smart! Thanks!
Is this the Planning Ahead I've heard so much about? What a clever idea!
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