Front shoulder of knitted in the round sweater wider than back

#1

I have almost finished a sweater 2 color and in the round. I am at the sew the shoulders together and when I finished sewing the left shoulder I noticed that the left front shoulder is wider than the back by about 1/2 inch. Has anyone experienced this and if so what did you do. Could I steek it and match the width of the back, do I rip out the shoulder seam and the front to where the armhole begins and knit it again or do I attach the sleeve leaving the extra inside (this may be bulky and not look that great). I must have lost count or something.

Thanks for the help!

#2

Welcome to the forum!?
Count the sts as best you can and see if it’s a problem with stitch count. If it is, I would rip back just to the shoulder shaping (not as far as the armhole) and adjust the count.
If it’s a problem of tension (more relaxed in one bind off than the other) then I would take out the longer bind off and redo it. Knit 2 tog a couple of times as you bind off so that the shoulder widths match.
What pattern are you following? Can you give us a name?

#3

I am knitting a drops pattern 28-7. I have already steeked the front so ripping back would seem to be out of the options. I may just fit it on the sleeve with the extra inside as best I can. I will count the stitches but it looks like I have too many on the front.
Thank you for the help.

#4

Very pretty!


You have the jacket in front of you so you can see the best solution. Try leaving the extra sts in the armhole and pin or baste in the sleeves. Then you can see exactly how it will look and feel. Good luck with it!

#5

Thank you for the help, I will try that. I was also thinking of steeking the extra to fit but the front steeking was enough anxiety for me to last years of knitting. :smile:

1 Like
#6

i have another question. in the pattern above the sleeves have decreases and in the stargazer pattern: https://www.garnstudio.com/search.php?action=search&w=stargazer&mt=0&c=0&k=0&y=0&yg=0&lang=us there is straight knitting with an edge. can i use that in place of the decreases and why are they using decreases?

i hope i’ve explained enough for someone to understand. thanks!

#7

The snowdrop pattern has a shaped cap to the sleeve which is worked by casting off sts. The Stargazer has a drop sleeve which has a straight edge with a reverse stockinette end ( to cover the steek). I suspect it’s just the designers’ preferences

#8

I was measuring the sleeve and wondering if the decreases creating a capped sleeve make the sleeve fit better? If I just knit the sleeve in the round and cast off will the top shoulder pull the sleeve up and create a “bunch” under the arm pit?

Thanks for you help, i really appreciate it!

#9

The drop sleeve is always going to pull down at the shoulder of the sweater which is wider than usual anyway to accommodate this. That said, both sweaters pull the shoulder down to form part of the sleeve, that is neither has fitted sleeve caps and tailored shoulders.
Since the decreases for the snowdrop pattern are so gradual, I don’t think that there’s going to be a big difference in the fit of these sweater. The pattern doesn’t have shaping at the shoulder to fit the sleeve cap. My tendency is to follow the pattern however.

#10

Wow Salmonmac you are so knowledgeable, I just learned that I should knit the collar on my sweater before I finish the sleeves! It makes sense.
Now I have another hurdle, it’s my own fault because I wanted thinner sleeves on the sweater. The pattern calls for 138 stitches and a bindoff under the arm of 10 stitches, then it calls for a working back and forth to shape sleeve cap on every other row 6 sts 5 times. My smaller sleeve has only 115 stitches. How do I calculate to accommodate the smaller number of stitches? I guess if I needed even numbers I could increase or knit two together. Thank you!

#11

Thank you. It’s just having made a lot of sweaters and many, many more mistakes.

Setting up a proportion usually works fairly well. If you do that it works out to an initial cast off of 8sts and subsequent cast off of 5sts every other row 5 times. (I assume this means 5 times on each side since 5 times total wouldn’t make a symmetrical sleeve cap. So in effect you’re binding off at the beginning of every row.)

#12

Wow! Thank you so much! I am learning more than I hoped for.

#13

i am at the fifth row of decreases and one side has three sets of five and the other only two. is this correct? thank you!

#14

This part is just confusing. You’ll have to see which you think looks best:
Either there’s a mistake in the pattern and you need to bind off a 3rd time on the side with 2 bind offs or
The pattern means to bind off 5 times on each side. There are no stitch counts to help out here.
See if you think that just evening off the bind offs at 3 each side works and if not, add in the extra bind offs. I suspect that either will work.

#15

Thank you for the quick reply!
I did add a third bind off to even out the sides. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to look like but if i knit each side 3 times more I will be at the top of the sleeve. I think the pattern is just confusing and possibly I could just knit back and forth now until the sleeve is the correct length?

#16

That’ll work. You must be close to the end measurement any way.