Friday, May 12, 2006

Increasing and decreasing

Hello all! Thank you for all of the nice comments about my Grey Gable. A couple of knitalongers asked for my formula for the increases and decreases, and I'm sorry I haven't responded - I hadn't seen the comments until today. Well, better late than never, right?

I know a couple of other knitters have said this too, but I think the decreases in the pattern are too close together. I started my decreasing probably about a half an inch before the pattern calls for it (I knit the small size, btw). I also changed the decreasing just to be K2tog, K1, pm, K1, K2tog just because that's what I'm used to doing in patterns. I then knit seven rows and did the second decreasing round. I knit another 8 rows and then started the increasing, which I did at each marker, a "m1, k1, pm, k1, m1". That way there were two stitches between the increases, just like the decreases. I knit 7 more rows and then did the increasing round again. That's it! I didn't add more waist shaping because the sweater is pretty casual, and the yarn I used (GGH Bali) is pretty stretchy. So, in pattern terms, I did:

At 4" (4.5, 5, 5.5, 6.5), decrease at each marker K2tog, K1, pm, K1, K2tog
Knit 7 rows
Repeat decrease round
Knit 8 rows
Increase round - increase at each marker M1, K1, pm, K1, M1
Knit 7 rows
Repeat increase round

The only comment I would say about my increasing/decreasing is that I've knitted my fair share of sweaters, so I know my measurements pretty well. Having the 8 stitches of inc/dec adds up to about 1 3/4" of waist shaping, so you may want to put more increases and decreases depending on how you want the sweater to turn out.

Let me know if you have any questions - I'm always happy to help.

2 Comments:

Blogger WandaWoman said...

Thanks so much for including your tips for increasing and decreasing. I'm to the point where I'm ready to add some shaping to the sweater, which while I love, I prefer to have more waist shaping for a better fit.

10:20 PM  
Blogger Carolyn said...

Yes, thanks a lot, that's such a huge help.

10:54 AM  

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