Mods for Eris
Contents
- Stuff I haven't done but would like to try
- Variants on raglan increases
- Altering the shirttail hem on the pullover
Stuff I haven't done but would like to try
puffed sleeves: if you modify the pullover to become a short sleeve top, you could add a little pouf to the sleeves by immediately increasing a large number of sleeve stitches on the very first row after the pickup (you'd be doubling or tripling the number of stitches, depending on the type of fabric your yarn produces). Work the raglan increases as normal; the extra fullness would be placed around the shoulder, and not around the underarm. When the sleeve is the right length, work corresponding decreases in the middle of the sleeve to bring it back down to the original number of stitches. Finish off with a narrow band, such as applied I-cord. Probably not a good idea for broad-shouldered people.
plain bottom edge: eliminate the cabled "corners" on the pullover or cardigan. For the pullover, continue working even (no short row "shirt tail"-like hem) and finish the edge however you'd like. For the cardigan, work the short row shaping at the hem as directed, but instead of going back to the front band stitches and proceeding with the cabled corners, bind off front facing stitches until 5 of the facing stitches (not including the purl "ditch" stitch) remain, then begin working them as applied I-cord around the bottom edge. (You might wish to reshape the short rows to change the curve of the hem, or you could simply continue to work the body even so that the front corners are right-angled.)
Variants on raglan increases
While you can always work your preferred raglan increases, keep in mind that the increase interval isn't constant. On a simple, boxy raglan, you often find yourself increasing on either side of the raglan "seam" (i.e., on the sleeve side, and on the body side) at the same time, and at regular intervals--say, every 2 or every 4 rows. In slightly more sophisticated raglan shapes, the frequency of increasing changes. In this multisized pattern, not only does the frequency of the increases change, but you don't always increase the sleeve and the body at the same time (it depends what size you're knitting).
What this means is that if your favourite way of working paired increases for a raglan sleeve is visually obvious, you need to make sure that you're happy with the way it's going to look before you do it. If you're working in a tweedy yarn, or one with a texture that minimizes the visual effect of increases, this might not be such a big issue. One way to deal with this is to work the most subtle increase that you know of (for example, the raise bar increase where you lift the horizontal strand between two stitches, and twist and knit into it so that you work an increase without creating a hole), and to work the two stitches of the raglan "seam" in reverse stockinette just to give the shoulders some definition. Another way to deal with this is to work a stitch pattern that is worked on every other row, but disguises whether an increase is worked or not--one example of this is given in the pattern as the cabled increase.
Altering the shirttail hem on the pullover
The hem on the pullover is asymmetric: the split and the cable detail is on the right-hand side, positioned where a side seam would be (i.e., directly under the arm), while the hem is straight and unbroken on the left-hand side. The construction given in the pattern directs you to work the hem from the right-hand side "seam" to the left-hand side "seam" on both the back and the front of the pullover. The hem bands are grafted together at the left-hand side. I focused so much on the cable detail that I forgot to provide pictures of the entire hem showing the asymmetry, but you can now see a picture of the pullover hem, viewed from the front, here.
If you want to modify the hem so that the curved shirttail and cable detail occurs on both sides, you can, but you'll need to do a very neat grafting job on the front and back hem bands:
- When you reach the point where the short rows are begun for the hem at step 11, divide the stitches into four portions: place the four stitches centered at the right-hand and left-hand side "seams" on holders or waste yarn; place the remaining stitches for the back on waste yarn; place the remaining stitches for the front on your working needles.
- Work the short row instructions of step 12 across the front only. Repeat for the back. (You can also work a modification of step 13 as well -- it will add another pair of short rows to the hem.) You should now have a conventionally-shaped, symmetric, shirttail hem.
- You can skip step 14, if you think it'll make your life easier; however, you'll have to do some wrapping and increasing while working steps 15 and 16 (or at least, some fudging). If you'd rather attack this now, start with the yarn end hanging at the end of one of your shirttail hems, and follow the instructions for working stitches, hiding wraps, and increasing along the curves (you'll have to reverse the order of those instructions depending on which direction you're approaching the curves), and purling across the side seams. This modified step 14 will result in a worked all the way around the body. If, for some reason, you find yourself working on the RS of the work instead, you'll be knitting instead of purling, too.
- Follow steps 15 and 16 for the right front cabled corner (if necessary at this point, hide your wraps and make some additional stitches so that the cabled edge lies smoothly), but stop working the hem band in step 16 when you're about three-quarters of the way across the front. Do not break the yarn. (However, you can estimate where the left front cabled corner will end, and work the hem band to that point, then break the yarn, leaving enough for grafting.)
- Follow steps 15 and 16 for the left front cabled corner, but use Chart N (right) instead and stop after row 90--do not repeat rows 83-90.
- Go back to the hem band that you had worked after the right front cabled corner, and continue working the hem band until you reach the left front cabled corner. Graft the hem band closed.
- Follow the instructions for the back cabled corner, making similar modifications.
Your grafting job will have to be neat, because it will be positioned like this:
