I’m going to do my first sweater attempt by making one for my dog, as she won’t care if it’s not perfect.
I’m using a dog sweater pattern in a “I Can’t Believe I’m Knitting!” book and am confused.
If the pattern doesn’t specifically say to cast off after creating each section, is it assumed that you do so? Or does it just mean you knit the whole thing at once?
I thought all sweaters were made in sections then sewn together? I think I’m missing something here, lol.
The pattern isn’t online so I scanned the pages and have attached them as photos.
:think: If you are making a dog sweater first to learn how to make people sweaters, realize they don’t have much in common.
It seems that this dog sweater is knit in one piece. There is no place you need to bind off any stitches until you get to page 2 where it says “shaping”.
Some sweaters for humans are made in pieces and sewn together but there are a lot of ways to do things and you can make seamless sweaters in several different ways.
Not all sweaters are knit in pieces and seamed together … they can be done seamlessly (all in one piece).
From reading your pattern briefly, I think that you are working on only one piece … the pattern just breaks it down into sections to let you know whether you are working on the neck, leg, etc. to make it easier for you to see what is going on and how it is going to go together in the end.
It tells you to sew one seam (towards the end of the pattern), so it seems that your pattern is worked flat as one piece and then you sew up the one seam to finish the sweater.
You probably knit the different sections with separate strands of yarn, then join them later by knitting with just one strand again, so there’s no need to BO.
And yep people sweaters are made a lot differently (we don’t make them long enough to put our legs through them) but you’ll get a lot of experience in techniques that are used in those patterns. It’s just the shaping that’s going to be different.
If you do each piece separately (maybe you don’t if you seam it up later) then you don’t have to have separate skeins for each one, you can use the other end of the one you’re working from, and if you don’t have another skein to use an end from, you can just finish up one section, then use the end from that on another (where you put the sts on a holder while you do the first section).
I got started on this months ago but had to leave it aside and am just now getting back to it.
Alrighty. For the section LEG OPENING in the pattern above, it says for Row 1 to: K13, bind off next 10 sts, K81, bind off next 10 sts, knit across: 82 sts in center section and 13 sts in each outer section.
Does that mean that I’m knitting into the bound off stiches? If it’s all one piece how do I knit 82 sts in the center section and 13 sts in each outer section?
Now since this is (seemingly) being knitted in one piece and not different sections, how is this done? In the [I]Note[/I] right below that it says all 3 sections of Leg Openings are worked at the same time using separate yarn for each section. I’m still confused as to how this is actually done. Below the note it says to use second and third yarns in rows 2 and 3. Help!? Is there a video here or anywhere online that shows an example of this (on any project)? I just can’t visualize what I’m supposed to be doing.
First k13, the BO 10 sts, k81 and BO the next 10 sts and it sounds like you have 12 more sts to the end of the row. This part at the end of the row “: 82 sts in center section and 13 sts in each outer section.” is simply telling you that there’s 3 sections with 82 sts in the middle and 13 in each of the outer ones. On the next row you work across 13 sts, drop that yarn, pick up a new end and work the 82 sts, drop that one and pick up another one to work the last 13 sts. That’s what you do on every row, each section has its own yarn. If you’ve ever made a sweater that has neck shaping with bound of sts in the center and the shoulders worked separately, it’s the same thing. But yours has 3 parts instead of 2. Let’s see if this little drawing helps -
VVVVVV____VVVVVVVVVVVVV____VVVVVV
That’s what your piece looks like and after a few more rows, it’ll be like this -
Thank you, that makes much more sense. Since this is in a beginners knitting book you’d think they would explain that better!
One more question: For the Closing Row it says to work across turning and adding stitches with the same yarn; I assume this is the yarn used for the first section and I discontinue working with the other 2 strands, correct? Do I just cut them and weave the ends in later?
I’m sure as I continue with this pattern I’ll have more questions. This is pretty advanced for my level of knowledge at this point. I’ve never done a sweater of any kind before. Nothing like diving in the deep end, heh.
Yes, if you’re doing the joining row on the RS, just continue with the yarn used for that section. When you get to the bound off sts, cast on with knit or cable cast on and knit across the 2nd set of stitches. Just drop the other strands and leave tails to weave in later.
