Making my own Top-Down Crochet Sweater

  

Last month I shared with you absolutely everything I knew about top-down sweater making. It felt like a lot of knowledge and I set off confidently to design my very first garment. So much for my theory of top-down sweater making! I immediately found a lot of flaws in my plan! In practice it was just not as simple as it seemed. This is how it is going and what I learnt... 

The difference between making a sweater from someone else's pattern, or designing your own, is like the difference between being a passenger or driving the car yourself. Hopefully if you are driving the car you are alert and paying attention, I hope you planned your route ahead of time and haven't just set off in a random direction. With this sweater, I am very much afraid that I did just set off in a random direction. After a while, however, I stopped and asked for directions!

 

In a crisis I am very useful. I can see the immediate need and respond to it. But making a sweater is not like fighting a fire! You have to hold multiple ideas in your head at the same time and be able to envisage how this affects that. I set off with a plan. I chose a stitch pattern and worked out how to increase it. I made my measurements and knew that I had to increase from 90 stitches to 252 in the yoke. I wrote that out as a pattern.

Then I realised that I had forgotten to take into account the under arm chains. These chains are made on the first row which splits the yoke into body and two sleeves. They increase both the bust and bicep measurements. 4 underarm chains increase the bicep measurement by 4 stitches, and the bust by 8 stitches. So I began again deciding how the yoke would increase from 90 stitches to 236.

That evening at bedtime I had a horrible thought. It was at the time which, as The Researcher wisely says, is; when the volume of the "noise" of our daily routine goes down, the problem-solving part of the brain can finally speak to us. I had stacked all my increases! Not only would the increases have been clearly visible, but they would have produced an Hexagonal yoke. How to resolve this problem?

After playing around with new numbers I was not confident, so I asked myself, what do other designers do? It turns out that if the designer is using anything other than plain stitches they either:                                                                            a. work the design as a raglan with the increases stacked at the four corners of the raglan, or

b. add a plain round of stitches between the pattern rows and add the increases to the plain rows.

Ah ha! so I decided to add a row of dc (sc-US) between every two rows of pattern. I had to work a new gauge swatch.

Finally I had the Yoke and the under arm chains. But, I had not worked out how to raise the neckline with short-row shaping. Originally I had envisaged doing this using the two-row stitch pattern. But as I am working short rows back and forth this would never work. And now I come to think about it, every time I have used short-row shaping it has been made either in dc, htr or in slip-stitches. I'll need a gauge swatch for this as well. 

The other thing that occurred to me was that when Dc (Sc-US) is worked back and forth it creates that very obvious two row pattern. So, I chose to make the Wrong-Side row using inverse or Purl Dc. 

 

Short-row shaping in crochet is apparently a well kept secret! If I were a knitter I would go to the original source. I have to say that the best reference is the Nomad Stitches video. That being said, I have worked a number of sweaters with short row shaping and each is worked in a slightly different way.

The short row shaping is supposed to cover two-thirds of the neckline. The longest row comes just past the front shoulder. Imagine that you are making a raglan sweater. That point, front of the right shoulder, would be the corner of the raglan neckline where the increases are stacked. 

In order to find this point: I took the total number of stitches at the base of my yoke (236), divided it by the number of stitches allocated to the biceps (44). In this case that came to 5.36. I then divided the number of stitches in my neckline (90) by 5.36, which gave me 16.79. So I used 16 as the number of stitches which represents the distance between the two points of the raglan at the right shoulder. I have no idea if this is how other people work it out.

I decided the shortest row should cover the only the back of the sweater. Knowing where my longest and shortest rows should end up I now had two fixed points.

I could then divide the stitches in between by the number of rows I needed.

 

There seems to be three methods of working short rows.

One is worked from the centre outwards in paired rows. Work first to the left and back to the centre. At this point step down to the base row and copy the paired rows to the right. When you return to the centre join to the top row. This procedure is repeated stepping around to the 2/3rds point on either side. I tried this method but wasn't pleased with the result.

The second method is worked as a zigzag. Starting from the centre, work a short row to the first point then back to it's opposite point. Continue to work in rows zigzaging from one point to it's opposite pair until reaching the final 2/3rds point on either side.

 

There is also a third method in which straight rows are added to the base of the yoke on the back only, just before dividing for the sleeves. It might be the simplest solution, but as I've never used this method I decided to avoid it.

 

I chose to work the shortest row first, slowly building up the length of the rows. It is also possible to work the longest rows first and slowly shorten the later rows. 

Just to add to the confusion, there is conflicting advice about whether to add increases to the short-rows or not. In my second attempt I did not. It was horrible, so I added increases! Basically I added two increases for every third of the sweater. So for the first, shortest row I added just two increases. I did not add any increases on the next row. But there after I added four increases every even numbered row and none on the odd numbered row.

It took three attempts to get something I was happy with. You'll notice it doesn't lay entirely flat. I am not attempting to create a flat circle. Instead I am trying to create something that will form itself over my shoulders. You'll also see that the last row was extended to reach that point at the back of the left shoulder. This will be the start/end of all my rows until I reach the bottom of the yoke.

Next, I worked a final row of Dc to smooth out last last short row.

You can see how I have lowered the front of the neck line and raised the back. I can now begin working on the yoke. But because of the increases I have added all of my numbers are now different. I am increasing from 114 stitches to 236. There will be 27 rows, or 9 repeats of 3 rows, with the increases being made on the third row of each repeat. You can see what I mean by 'loosing my way'. Next time I do this I will have a better map!

This shows the completed yoke and how it does not lay flat. I have divided the final row of stitches and marked which parts will become the front, back and sleeves. 

Next I checked for fit to make sure that the yoke is long enough. Is there enough room for the arms. The yoke may stretch a little lower when the extra weight of the garment is added. I also have to remember that there will be 4 additional stitches at the underarm. I was very happy to discover that my blasé  "oh the yoke needs to be about 7 inches", turned out to be a lucky guess!

Not quite so lucky, I discovered that my row end was four stitches away from where I needed it to be to separate for the sleeves. I slip-stitched forward to this point and began my new row there. From now on the row end will run down under the arm. 

 

A few rows later, when I had reached the high point of the bust, I decided to decrease under each arm over the next two rows. This removed 8 stitches or 5cm. Then I can increased again at the waist so that it is wide enough at the hips. After years of making sweaters the wrong length I have finally come to the conclusion that the right length for me is about 34cm measured from the under arm. Having reached this point I can check for fit again. 

 

In all honesty it feels too baggy. I am reminding myself that, when blocked I expect to loose about 6cm off the width of the sweater. The places where I have increased and decreased have left a bump and the transition between yoke and body are ruffled. I am hoping that blocking will solve these problems. I am reminding myself that the washed fabric will be softer and have more drape. But I am determined not to second guess myself at this stage! Due to my enthusiastic yarn buying, I can always pull back to where I increased at the waist and re-make this part of the sweater!

 

Now that the weight of the sweater has been added the armhole feels a little low. Perhaps this will correct itself a little when the sleeves are added.

 

How do I finish the bottom edge of the sweater? Ribbing would turn it into a blouson style. Or I could just leave it as it is. Instead I have decided to try a faux I-cord edging from Sue Perez's book. I have changed my hook size up 2mm to a 6mm hook so that the edging does not constrain the width. It gives the impression of a tiny rolled edge.

 

Before starting on the sleeves, it seems like a good idea to finish the neckline. I have a tendency to make my sleeves too short. As the neckline may raise the yoke, it seems like a good idea to do that first before the sleeves! I chose a simple short slip-stitch rib and used a 5mm hook to keep the rib small and neat. I began the ribbing behind the left shoulder where my 'seam' began. But referring to my own instructions for joining the ribbing, the join becomes invisible.

 

Now for the sleeves. Measuring from the underarm to cuff I have 42cm or 16.5". Using this measurement I can calculate that I need about 59 rows. I can add increases at even distances so that the sleeve gently tapers.

In actuality I added 61 rows and finished with the same faux I-cord edging. I discovered that in order to get the rolled edge to appear on the outside of the sweater the final round of crochet, before the I-cord, needed to be made from the outside. I had never noticed before, but the tops of standard crochet stitches tilt forwards. It is very subtle, but in this case it was just enough to make the difference.

 

At this point I made the decision to remove the waist increases. It reduced the circumference by 5cm. Although I am a small person, I seem to be under the impression that I'm an average size. I do have a habit of making my clothes too large! I am still expecting the width to loose 6cm after it is washed which should give it a circumference with 2.5cm/1" of ease on the bust size. This will be large enough if everything works as it aught to.

 

Considering that this is the first sweater I have made completely from scratch, without a pattern, I am very Happy! The size is right and the fit is good. The yoke is the right length and for once the sleeves are neither too long or too short! I am so relieved that my top-down sweater theory turned out to be right.  

 

Hopefully, next time I decide to do this I will have learnt from my mistakes and it will be oh so much easier. More importantly, I hope you will have learnt from my mistakes and you will make this look like a walk in the park!

 

...hmmm? Now maybe I could tackle a raglan yoked sweater? How hard can it be?! 

Fastening off...