I just bought a Plymouth Yarns pattern for a simple baby cardigan sweater done in Dreambaby DK. It’s a striped sweater and the only shaping on the sweater is for the neck on the fronts, the back is just a rectangle. No shaping for the armholes. Rather than have all those loose threads on the ends of the rows, I was thinking of doing it on circular needles and make the body all one piece. I thought of just carrying the yarn up the sides but there is only one repeat of each color so not sure how that would work.
The pattern is Dreambaby DK P287.
Any thoughts?
All in one versus pieces
I’m [I]always[/I] in favor of less sewing myself. A couple of thoughts:
1: They’re probably allowing a stitch on each end for selvedge, so you’ll have to account for that if … there’s no selvedge. That’s only really an issue if there’s a pattern stitch though… a couple of extra stitches size wise, even on a baby sweater probably isn’t gonna be a big deal. (I guess if you’re using something uber-chunky at 2 sts/in it might be an issue, but what baby sweater is made out of yarn THAT thick? It’d weigh more than the kid!)
2: If there’s only one repeat of each color, you can just join the new color in as you come to it. No need to carry it along. Since it’s a cardigan, there’s no “jog” to worry about in the stripes and the ends from the color changes can be easily enough disposed of.
3: I’ve yet to actually finish a sweater, so you should take anything I tell you with that disclaimer.
I think knitting in one piece should work. I’d subtract out the selvege stitches, as mojo suggested.
Yep, you can knit in one piece up to the underarm, then you’ll need to split the back and fronts and knit them flat. Use a 3 needle BO to join the shoulder seams, and you can pick up sts around the armholes for the sleeves and knit them down. On a baby sweater you wouldn’t need to leave off the seam sts, that would amount to less than an inch unless it’s bulky yarn, so would be okay to leave them. The more room the better for baby and children’s clothes.
Yeah… what she said.
The only reason I mentioned the selvedge stitches is that I didn’t look to see if there was ribbing or anything. If there is, that might get thrown off slightly, but I wouldn’t bother just for size.
http://www.royalyarns.com/Pattern-Knitting-Plymouth-Dreambaby-DK-PYC-P287_p_20494.html
I think knitting in one piece is a very good idea. Saves all the ends and matching the stripes at the seams. The repeats of the colors are so far apart that I wouldn’t carry the yarn up the edge though. I’ve seen this sweater in my local yarn shop in the bright colors and it’s sdorable.
Any ideas on how long to make it before changing to flat? The back measures 11" for the size I’ll be making. The fronts are 81/2 inches long before beginning neck shaping. There isn’t any armhole shaping so can’t judge from that.
I was thinking 8" for the back?? Does that seem reasonable?
Thought this would be a great way to use up a lot of my leftover DK from other projects.
Thanks everyone for your input.
Is there a schematic that shows you the width at the top of the sleeve? If so, you’ll want to make the armhole opening on the back and on the fronts about half the width of the top of the sleeve . (So if the sleeve is 10" wide, start knitting flat at 11"-5"=6".) If no schematic, you can calculate the width at the top of the sleeve by figuring out how many sts you have after sleeve shaping and convert to inches with the stitch gauge. If the armholes are too small the baby won’t be happy; if too long you can always do a short seam at the bottom to close up before inserting sleeve.
It looks like a fun way to use up leftovers.
You can also figure how long you need it from the underarm to the hem. For a young baby 11" there would be too long, you probably need about 9" or so.
She will be a year next month and is pretty long in the body so was going to make the larger size so she can wear it next fall as well.
Ok for a year old, that should be long enough. Toddlers mostly grow in height anyway.