17-02-2018

So I’ve gone off-road by omitting the neck button / buttonhole and by decreasing the circ of the neck opening (which seems way to big on most). I knit the neck ribbing in the round from the get go.

• CO 132 st join in round

• Rib for 1 inch / 10R

• K one row and set up the markers per below

Initial markers set up: orange marker to denote beginning of round / 23 st (or half of front neck) / green marker / 2 st / green marker / 19 st (sleeve) / green marker / 2 st / green marker / 40 stitches (full back neck) / green marker / 2 st / green marker / 19 st (sleeve) / green marker / 2 st / green marker / 23 st (or second half of front neck) / back to the orange marker

• Then begin the short row section (which you’ll do totally differently than the pattern suggests):

• Knit all the way around till you get to 2 st past the final green marker (before the orange marker), wrap and turn the next stitch. This is an increase row - 8 st

• Purl all the way back till you get to 2 stitches past the green marker that precedes the orange marker. You’re working the wrong side but doing the wrap and turn in the same spot on the right-hand side of the neck front. No increases on purl rows

Since you start with 23 stitches on each half of the front neck, you need to figure out how many st between each WT on each go around. I did WT on the 3rd stitch, first time, then increased to 3 stitches between each WT (added a stitch). I also opted to stop when 7 stitches from the orange marker on each side. Remember to increase 8 stitches on each RS row

Then, on RS, pick up the final wraps and keep going.

Conceptually, what you’re doing is 10 wrap and turn short rows to make the back neck approx 1.25 inches longer than the front. Simultaneously, you’re also doing raglan increases on every right side row (except I forgot to do it once on this version, fyi).

It doesn’t matter if you do this in accordance with the pattern instructions as long as you a) do raglan increases on every right side row (till you get to the desired proportions) AND short row till you get to the desired back neck length.

On finishing my short row section, I increased 40 stitches - that means I did 5 increase rows of 8 stitches over the span of the short-row section.

As of when I begin the section of the pattern called “PM, join in round and continue raglan increases”, I’ve already been knitting in the round since the start, and I’ve already done 5 increase rows, vs the 2 increase rows that the pattern instructs.

I will likely need to get to 29 raglan increase rows total, before this section is finished and I can continue to divide for the body. When you have 364 stitches it’s time to divide for the body.

Note: 29 increases of 8 st is 232 stitches increased above the CO number of 132. Combined this comes to 364 stitches.

18-02-2018

What I love about Quince on a US 2 needle is that it knits so firm and evenly.

OK - back to how I have gone off road with this pattern…

• When I get to 47 / 2 / 67 / 2 / 88 / 2 / 67 / 2 / 47 (remember the 2 47s add up to the sweater front, I’m delineating between the two because that’s where my “in the round” marker is) - I have an arm depth of 5.75” (this doesn’t include the neck ribbing depth) and a sleeve circ of 11.5” (on the edge of too deep for this point and too wide).

• No more sleeve increases will happen from this point on and I’ll take the sleeve stitches off the needles when I hit ~6.75” of depth. For reference, note that the front body is 4.5” deep (not inc rib) and the back body is 5.75” at this point.

I need ~15R of extra sleeve depth before I put the sleeves on holders.

Meanwhile, to get to the desired bust circumference within a short span (my armscye is shallow), I’ll need to maximize the next 2 inches of body length by increasing the front and back raglan stitches by another 26 stitches each (52 st total). That means, when I get to the full bust / sleeve stitches removed, I’ll have a full bust circ of 37.5”.

My row gauge is ~10R per inch and my armscye is short, so I’ve got ~20 rows to get to a front body st count of 120 and a back body stitch count of 114. (13 increase rows of 4 st per inc row). I’ll likely want to remove the sleeve stitches 15R into this process. Pay attention to when you get to 6.75”.

1. K one inc row of 4 st on fr and back body
2. K one inc row of 4 st on fr and back body
3. K one row straight
4. K one inc row of 4 st on fr and back body
5. K one inc row of 4 st on fr and back body
6. K one row straight
7. K one inc row of 4 st on fr and back body
8. K one inc row of 4 st on fr and back body
9. K one row straight
10. K one inc row of 4 st on fr and back body
11. K one inc row of 4 st on fr and back body
12. K one row straight
13. K one inc row of 4 st on fr and back body
14. K one inc row of 4 st on fr and back body
15. K one row straight

At this point, presuming that the armscye depth is 6.75ish, remove sleeve stitches - follow pattern instructions - but keep going with the bodice increases

1. K one inc row of 4 st on fr and back body
2. K one inc row of 4 st on fr and back body
3. K one row straight
4. K one inc row of 4 st on fr and back body

At this point the body and sleeves will be separate and you can consider whether you want to knit for another inch or so to get to the appropriate place below the bust to begin the pocket pleats.

20-02-2018

OK, re-writing this to reflect my ripping back of 60 R?!

Body I ended up knitting 4 more rows before I began my decrease section (which takes me to the nipple height).

The pattern does an increase section but I’m fitting the bust so I’ll decrease from 37.5” circ at nipple to 32.5” at under bust. This will happen over 5 inches of length / 48 rows.

Here’s the thing, this pattern is written so obliquely - what I mean is with no instruction that actually explains what’s going on - that I didn’t realize I’d need to get to the point where I have 3.4 times more stitches on the front needle than the back.

At the point at which I have knit to nipple-depth, I have 120 Fr / 114 B. By the time I finish the increase section (that precedes removing the pocket stitches), I’ll have 192 st Fr and 100 B. This respects the proportions of the sweater design (cuz I’m going to have to take 112 of those 192 Fr stitches and put them on holders for the pockets).

The way I’ll do this is by _____ so that I can do the pocket pleats (what the designer means by the construction that results from putting the pocket stitches on the holders) at the appropriate vertical proportion i.e. 1 inch below the under bust.

This is when I’ll Divide for Pockets as such:

Note: I’ll remove XX stitches for pockets (in line with XS) and I’ll cast on 13 (or maybe 12) using backwards loop.

At this point, just before I begin my increases (which will go from under bust until the thickest part of my abdomen at which point I’ll have a 40” hem circumference over about 10” of length), I will have:

16 st (CO side front) / XX st (front - inter pocket span) / 16 st (CO side front) / XX st (back) (XXX st total)