I’m currently knitting the Lav Sweater in size medium and I was hoping you could help solve a problem I’m having with the pattern.
I’m almost done with the body, I’ve completed chart A a total of 3 time (rows 1-24 x 3). The next step is to shape the armholes. The pattern says to start at row 8 and start binding off, then row 9 to finish the last set of bind offs. I will eventually join the sleeves with the body at chart A row 10.
However, if I start on row 10 to join the body and sleeves, the pattern doesn’t match. See attached photo. Column 27 and 29 would end up having a total of 4 stitches in the contrast color when it should only have a total of 3 in the pattern. Am I missing something here?
The pattern for the body/sleeve join changes with the selvedge stitch that runs up the sleeve (rightmost box in the sleeve chart) and may form a decorative line at the join. That seems to be the extra stitch at the join which will eventually become part of the decreases for the yoke.
So the join will be at row 10 and row 82 which maintains the pattern lengthwise along the chart columns.
Thank you. When I finish row 24 in chart A, I would normally go to the beginning of the chart and start knitting at row 1 continue the pattern. However, now that I’ve completed the body and finished row 24 the directions says to start knitting at row 8 instead of row1. If you compare the pattern in row 8 with the pattern in row 1, you’ll notice that row 8 does match row 1. Then once you start on row 9, it matches with row 2. However, once you get to row 10 it does not match row 3. This
It looks like this is done to maintain the continuity with the sleeve pattern but it does throw off the body pattern. What if you work the armhole decreases on rows 22 and 23 then join on row 24 of the body which is equivalent to row 84 of the sleeve pattern? Does that work with the overall pattern on the body?
It can be extremely difficult to pattern-match across curves and/or diagonal lines. I can see in the pattern photo that the pattern isn’t an exact match across the raglan line, but it’s really remarkably good. The designer obviously spent a lot of time getting things to line up as well as possible. And it may not be quite as good for all sizes. Maybe put in a lifeline and knit as instructed, and see how it looks? Then you could figure out what, if any, changes you’d like to make.
Ok I’m glad I’m not just imagining that the pattern maintains continuity in the sleeve but does not in the body. It does appear that joining at row 24 in chart A and row 84 in the sleeve pattern would work, it would just add a little bit extra length in the sleeve. I can try that method though. Thanks.
That’s such a lovely sweater pattern. Personally I would change the shape to a modified drop sleeve so the pattern would continue across the body, but I don’t like raglan shaping anyway. Just personal preference.
I never knew the backstory. Skappel just seemed to be part of the European knitting tradition. Thanks, ColoCro for reappearing from that rabbit hole and posting the story.
