Hi all,
I am knitting the Dublin Cardigan by thesewingboxmag,com and would like to modify the sleeve cuffs from just being straight garter stitch (I used the Icelandic Bind Off for the hem) to being gathered in a stretchy but more snug cuff. I am not certain how to go about that. The sleeves are knitted flat and then sewn together after. I am knitting 46 stitches straight garter until desired length.
Any suggestions/help are really appreciated!
You may be able to replace the garter stitch cuff with ribbing without any modification.
Depending on how full you want the sleeve near the cuff you might either taper the sleeve along the forearm for a tighter fit or make several decreases on the last row before the cuff for a fuller sleeve.
Do you have a sweater that has the type sleeve you would like on this sweater? If so you could measure the width of the sleeve then use your gauge to convert inches to stitch number.
It will take a bit of experimenting on the first sleeve to get the look that you want. Keep good notes for the second sleeve.
salmonmac,
As usual, you have come through! I don’t have an existing sweater to measure from, but I can measure my wrist and then measure the 46 stitches circumference and decrease accordingly. What would be the math for that? Inches to stitches?
Yes, use your stitch gauge to measure the width of sleeve you’d like above the wrist. I have also used the lower hem ribbing (assuming you have ribbing at the hem). Wrap it around your wrist and then count the number of sts. That stitch number is what you need for the sleeve cuff.
I often use the sweater body or hem edge to wrap around my wrist to see how many stitches I’d like. I put a stitch marker in, then a second marker.
If you transition from garter to rib you can change the stitch count as salmonmac said, you can also make it pull in more by making wider rib columns (eg 3 x 3 rib pulls in more than 1x1 rib but still stretches out just as wide). You could try some rib swatches with the stitch count with different widths or types of rib stitch.
You could also swatch garter rib stitch, it’s less stretchy but very pretty and may look nice next to your garter section.
When I do this I like to put knit stitches at the seam edge as I like to mattress stitch with knits together. Also remember to add a selvedge each side for the seam when calculating stitch count.
Looking forward to seeing it.
Thank you, Creations-
Those are great suggestions!