Get out your handkerchiefs

I really meant get out your calculators. But I loved that movie.

Anyway, thanks for following along. I've been slow because I've been knitting. And I twisted my foot which hurt a whole lot and I felt sorry for myself, but it's better now. Just a little purple and swollen, but I can walk. OK, back to Tweedy Aran Cardigan.

One person reported trouble seeing the numbers on the schematic I posted. Sorry for the trouble. I was having photoeditting, blogger, and html trouble. Clicking on the photo in that last post will take you to flickr. Then, right above the photo you will see a mini magnifying glass and the words "all sizes". Click on that to see the schematic really big. Let's see what I can make work now though.

Ah, here's the back. Recall, this pattern comes in five bust sizes, 33.5, 38, 42.5, 47 and 51.5

So first look at the numbers of the schematic along the bottom of the back. Are they exactly one half the bust circumference? Mostly, yes, except not in the largest size. 25.25 times two is only 50.5. If that inch matters, then you will want to know if the error comes in the schematic or in the stated size.

Two issues. First, there's the math sloppiness. In order to know the true largest size, one would need to do some calculations.

Second. Where's the selvedge? I have seen way too many patterns that do not account for the selvedge stitches. Let me give an example. Suppose the gauge is 4 stitches to an inch and it is a pullover knit in two pieces. Design says finished sweater will be 36 inches at bust. So they say knit each of back and front to be 18 inches across, or 4x18 = 72 stitches. However, once you sew the two pieces together, you lose four stitches to the seam. That's a whole inch. The finished sweater really measures 35 inches. I've seen this in patterns for bulky weight as well, with the gauges of 2.5 or 3 stitches per inch. And I am not just talking freebies from random folks on ravelry, these are professional designers, both in magazines and self-published. I've browsed ravelry project pages of some of these and sure enough, for a decent percent of finished sweaters, the knitter mentions that it is smaller than anticipated. Pay attention. If you want to knit a sweater and a number of folks complain about the fit, check the numbers yourself. There's a decent chance the selvedge stitches weren't accounted for.

We do not know in this pattern whether the designer accounted for selvedge but just doesn't show us on the schematic, or if the design does not account for selvedge and thus will knit up too small. We'd have to calculate that ourselves.


Now, one of the best parts of this pattern is the waist shaping. Sadly enough, the IK stylists and editors from 2001 did not even photograph this aspect of the sweater! Fortunately we have ravelry and can browse the FOs to appreciate this detail. So, you choose a size, but how much of a waist shaping will you get?

Check out the schematic. My stars. If you make the smallest size, the waist shaping is in reverse, girth there will be bigger than at bust. The next size up, 38 inches, will give a waist decrease of two inches total, since the back indents by one inch. But then holy mother of saints! The largest size, with the 51.5 inch bust. According to the schematic, the waist shaping is NINE inches. Yup, that would mean a waist circumference of 42 inches. That is quite the hourglass figure, yes?

OK, so all this tells you is that the schematic figures are completely wrong. If you want to know how much waist shaping you will get you have to figure that out yourself.
We'll leave that for next time. Now I want to finish my sweater. See. I've knit the body as a unit and all I have left is to finish one front and then knit the collar. the second sleeve is already knit and ready to be sewn on.