I have a theory, but I have no idea if it will work! My theory has been living in 'the back-seat of my head' for a very long time. Finally, I have plucked up the courage and armed with a bag of ridiculously cheap yarn, I am setting out to test it. This will inevitably take at least two months as I am a slow crocheter, so don't expect the big reveal this month.
I suppose firstly you might want to know why I am putting myself through all this stress. Have you ever sewn yourself an item of clothing from a pattern? The paper pattern comes with all sorts of adjustments for size. For crochet or knitted items, not so much! If you are lucky, the designer will tell you to adjust for body length or arm length 'here'. But otherwise, you pretty much have to be a genius if you have a large bust or wide hips, narrow shoulders, big biceps, I could go on. Also I loath seams!
Why reinvent the wheel? Isn't there already a handy formulae for working all this out?
For knitting sure, but for crochet there isn't a lot of information out there. Elizabeth Zimmerman is the accredited expert on knitting. Her formulae is heavily based on percentages and honestly, I find it really confusing. Dora Does has written an excellent post on the subject. I want to show you my theory in action and we can both learn from my mistakes!
Let's get started!
Before I do anything else, I need to pick my yarn, my stitch pattern and hook size. The problem here is that as I know nothing right now I have no idea how much yarn I will need to purchase. If there was a brilliant wool shop round the corner there would be no problem. I could try out my yarn, design the sweater and then go back to buy the quantity I think I need. Instead, because I like to add additional jeopardy to my projects (apparently!) I have bought what I think is a sweaters worth.
The yarn I have chosen is Drops Belle, which is a DK weight Cotton, Viscose, Linen mix.
The stitch pattern is a simple Dc, Tr repeat, (Sc, Dc-US). I will be working in rows, turning at the end and working the same repeat, Dc into tr below, Tr into dc below. I'm keeping the stitch pattern simple so that it is easy to add increases and decreases. The recommend hook size is 4mm, so I tried that and I liked the fabric that resulted.
The next thing to do is to weigh and Measure the Swatch.
Then block the swatch and when dry re measure.
I did two, one blocked (right), one unblocked (left) so that we can compare the difference.
The blocked fabric has less texture, but the fabric is more dense because the yarn has relaxed. However it also has more drape. I can also see that the blocked swatch has retained the same gauge for the height. That is, there are the same number of rows to 10cms. But it has shrunk in width. Incidentally, I made the swatch roughly 15cm² so that I could measure the 10cms from the centre and get a better idea of the gauge.
I need to work out the details for my seater using the blocked swatch gauge. It is important to have both sets of numbers however!
Working out how to Increase and Decrease.
Before going any further I need to know how to add increases. My stitch pattern is a two stitch repeat so every increase will be made up of two stitches. I have decided that the neatest way to do this is to work each two-stitch increase over two rows. Adding one additional stitch on each row.
The easiest way to increase in a yoked sweater would be to work a plain row between patterned rows. Then the increases would be made in the plain rows only.
Taking Measurements.
I need to take my own body measurements and it's helpful to also take measurements from a number of garments that fit well. The difference in, say, your actual bust measurement and the bust measurement from your favourite sweater is called ease. In my case I have 3"/7.6cm of ease on the bust but only 2"/5cm of ease on the biceps.
The most important measurements to begin with are bust, biceps and the drop from the top of your shoulder to the under arm.
The yoke has to grow from the neck circumference to the bust circumference over the distance from the neckline to the bottom of the yoke.
So in my case, the sweater begins 56cm wide and it has to grow to be the chest circumference including ease (96.5cm)+ the bicep measurements including ease (30.5cm x 2) = 157.5cm.
How deep is the yoke? Even if I crochet the neckline I will not know how low it will hang because it lacks the weight of the sweater. Consider, the wider the neckline the shallower the yoke will be. I am going to begin with 18cms / 7", which is the drop, vertically, from the top of my shoulder to my underarm. The beauty of this type of garment is the ability to try it on as you go, and to make adjustments. So I am relying on this as my fall back position if it all goes horribly wrong!
I forgot about these! When you reach the bottom of the yoke you divide the yoke into the part which will become the body and the parts which will become the sleeves. You can just crochet straight across ignoring the parts which will become the sleeves. But I have found that the sweaters I have made in the past with underarm chains fit better. I plan to add 4 chains across each under arm which is approximately 2.5cm, in this case. These chains will add an additional 2.5cm to each sleeve width and 5cm to the bust width =10cm in total. Therefore I need to rewrite the figures, above.
Or, converted into stitches using my gauge, 90 sts to 236 sts in 25 rows.
Short Row Shaping.
It is perfectly acceptable to make a top-down sweater without adding any short row shaping. What it means is that the front and back of the sweater are at an equal height. If the neckline is high it can feel like you are being strangled. It can also leave you with a chill at the back of the neck.
The answer is to add a number of short rows somewhere in the yoke. Usually they are placed either at the start of the yoke, or at the bottom. The rows are worked to form a kind of crescent. This turns the round yoke into a sort of egg shape, bringing the back up and the front down.
This is the diagram I drew to envisage what that will look like.
This YouTube video by Sandra at Nomad Stitches is really helpful in explaining more about short rows.
I know I told you that there would be no seam, but as I am turning at the end of each round it will leave a visible line. It is my intention to place the row ends down through the yoke in roughly the same position as the increases would be if this was a raglan sweater. I'm placing them at the back of my left shoulder. When I divide for the sleeves I hope to take the round ends down from the under arm. I'm not 100% confident I can do this without making an adjustment at some point. That is another of those, 'I'll cross this bridge when I get there' problems!
Apparently there is no magic formulae to convert all of this knowledge into a set of numbers to crochet from. Instead it is a matter of trial and error, lots of paper and a very big eraser!
A note for my American cousins!
Inches versus centimetres.
Being of a certain age I span the UK's change from Imperial to Metric measurements, so I tend to use both for different purposes. I suggest, dear American cousin, that you do the same! Doing maths in metric is so much easier and therefore I haven't even attempted to do the conversion for you except where it is readily known.
Over to You!
What have I missed or forgotten? What is going to go horribly wrong? Should I add ribbing to my neckline and hems, or something else? Any advice you have would be gratefully received! Then please come back next month to find out how its going and what I have learnt.
...fastening off 
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