Insomnia is good for sweaters
I finished the body of my supersized version of Elizabeth Zimmermann's Tomten jacket this morning!
I like the way her "patterns" consist mostly of just proportional formulas plus a few suggestions on how to personalize your own project.
To get to this point I:
a) knit a swatch for gauge
b) measured myself at the widest circumference to be covered by the sweater
c) added 3 inches for ease
c) converted inches to stitches based on aforementioned gauge swatch
d) cheated the stitches so they're divisible by 8
e) knit and knit and knit until the body seemed the right length from the armhole opening
f) knit 1/8 of the stitches, cast off 1/4, knit 1/4, cast off 1/4, and knit the final 1/8
g) continued the panels until the armhole size seemed right
Other shaping:
a) after the armhole bind off I reduced one stitch every 4th row on the front panels until an opening equal to 1/6 the circumference of the sweater was left. This gives the jacket a V-neck.
b) one inch from completing the back panel I bound off two inches less than 1/6 of the circumference, then reduced one stitch each row on both sides to get a final neck opening of 1/6 of the circumference of the sweater. This should allow the button band to flow smoothly around the back of the neck.
Now to ponder what to do with those mongo armhole openings.
I like the way her "patterns" consist mostly of just proportional formulas plus a few suggestions on how to personalize your own project.
To get to this point I:
a) knit a swatch for gauge
b) measured myself at the widest circumference to be covered by the sweater
c) added 3 inches for ease
c) converted inches to stitches based on aforementioned gauge swatch
d) cheated the stitches so they're divisible by 8
e) knit and knit and knit until the body seemed the right length from the armhole opening
f) knit 1/8 of the stitches, cast off 1/4, knit 1/4, cast off 1/4, and knit the final 1/8
g) continued the panels until the armhole size seemed right
Other shaping:
a) after the armhole bind off I reduced one stitch every 4th row on the front panels until an opening equal to 1/6 the circumference of the sweater was left. This gives the jacket a V-neck.
b) one inch from completing the back panel I bound off two inches less than 1/6 of the circumference, then reduced one stitch each row on both sides to get a final neck opening of 1/6 of the circumference of the sweater. This should allow the button band to flow smoothly around the back of the neck.
Now to ponder what to do with those mongo armhole openings.