May 13, 2008
I really like top-down raglan sweaters. For kids, that is. Once, I knit the not-so-shrunken sweater by Wendy Bernard, and there was no structure at the shoulders. It looked droopy on me, and so I found that I prefer having shoulder seams, raglan or otherwise, in my own adult-sized sweaters. But for little ones? Top-down raglans are great. Here’s AJ modeling her new summer sweater, a top-down that I knitted by the seat of my pants.
Since I have already packed all of my knitting books and put them in storage, first I checked online for instructions, and I found a lot of pattern “calculators” and worksheets and such for top-down sweaters. But I don’t enjoy math and that all seemed kind of complicated. So I took my gauge and figured out my target circumference for the neckband, then just started knitting. Because once you’ve knitted something top-down, the increases and all of that are simple to figure out yourself.
The one thing that gave me pause was the sleeve decreases. I figured out the number of stitches I needed to lose to get from the underarm sleeve circumference to the wrist sleeve circumference–that was the easy part. But then as far as how slowly or rapidly I needed to do the decreases…that was hard! I just decided to do them ever four rows and forged ahead. And as luck would have it, it worked out fine. The sleeves could maybe be another 3-6 rows longer, but let’s just call them “bracelet length”. Or, pink Disney princess watch length. It is a summer sweater, after all. And no one’s wrists get cold.
I only did three yarn-over buttonholes on the buttonband, because I did two buttons on her last summer cardi and I liked the way it looked. But I needed an extra this time, since she’s bigger these days. It worked out well. There’s a little glitch in the buttonband; you might be able to see it. Somewhere after I passed the joining of the body and was cruising on towards the hem, I realized that I had dropped a selvedge stitch. Gasp! I don’t know about anyone else, but I can pick up dropped stitches all day long, unless it’s an edge stitch. That’s a whole ‘nother ballgame. But I wasn’t going to rip back, and thankfully I found this site to walk me through the process of picking up a dropped edge stitch. So, I fixed it, but then I realized I had also dropped the second stitch. I did a lot of maneuvering and heavy breathing and even stuck my tongue out just right, but I couldn’t get that second column of stitches to look right. So there is a wonky place by the buttonband. But I’m going to ignore it. Overall, I’m happy with the sweater, and it comes just in time for air conditioning and summer sleeveless weather.
I also got so jealous of my mom’s PJ pants that I had to make myself a pair. This is from Simplicity 9330.
I modify these to a slightly lower rise when I make them, because I don’t like wearing high-risers. I left them behind in the 90s and I’ve never looked back.
