I have a neck edge on my sweater which is plenty big enough for the style and design but when I add ribbing it becomes much smaller than I’d like, I don’t like how it sits or looks. My solution is to knit a seperate ribbed neckband and sew it on but I need to make more rib stitches than there are neck edge stitches otherwise I’d be back to square one wih the neckband smaller than I’d like. This means I can’t sew it on 1:1 with faux grafting or mattress stitch.
Based on my rib gauge I need 108 sts of 2x2 rib to comfortably fit around the neckedge without drawing it in. The 108 rib sts have to seam to 76 neckedge sts.
108:76 is almost a ratio of 9:7 so that’s how I’ll begin pinning it on.
What sort of sewing stitch can I do to join these two pieces please?
@ColoCro I have a good size swatch ready to try to sew on, my swatch is 80 sts of ribbing and roughly as deep as I think I want the band. I want to seam it on to see what it looks like, how it sits, if the band will fold down to the outside. At the ratio of the gauge 9:7 I would need to seam this 80 st rib onto 63 neck edge (I think!).
I think stand up is probably what I’m after so there is the look of the rib but without making the neck much smaller than it is. If it stands up or out too much ith the swatch seamed I can reasses the stitch count.
Do I use faux graft? Mattress stitch? Something else? My sewing knowledge is limited to say the least, if there I another sewing technique which might work better I can try it.
Thanks @salmonmac I have been considering a different kind of neckband but it needs something substantial enough to suit the sweater whch is quite chunky looking (2 strands of DK) so I don’t feel a thin band like icord would be right, i think it would look kind of thin and the neck too open. I considered a sort of wrinkled cowl scarfy neck with one strand of yarn in stockinette.
Salmonmac I was just looking at some Debbie bliss patterns (browsing after seeing lovely baby pattern on another thread) and saw this really interesting neck line which is kind of like one of your recommendations. I’ve never seen a neck like this before.
I’ve done a trial of sewing on my (too short) rib swatch and left open like a collar, I don’t think it’s right for this particular design as it visually fights with the colour work design as the too of the sweater, but it is certainly opening up some ideas for future sweaters, and for experimenting with some different necks.
I’ve sewn it on with temporary thread to test how this looks. I can fold it out like this or fold inside as a double neckband, both look quite good. The sewing is not too band really, I just used mattress stitch but in the ratio I had calculated for gauge.
I just saw this, mine is a sort of smaller version of this neck
Yes, I think I need to explore necks further and save some pictures. I’ve seen some really interesting necks almost by accident. When I purposely look for necks I might like I generally fail to find any. I think I’m on neck 6, again, this happens too often.
I’ve discovered also the yarn I’m working with, the black is much softer and squishier than the green which is a bit hard and crunchy, the look of the ribbing in green is not as nice and doesn’t feel as nice as the ribbing in black. I really need the neckband to be in green but with it feeling kind of crunchy I don’t want it touching me too closely!
Are both yarns from the same company? Some yarn companies source their yarn from different places. I know Cascade had an issue a few years ago, where their 220 sourced from Peru was fine, but the 220 from China was coarser and bled badly. Yet another thing to check on the ball band!
It’s scheepies Scrumptious, all made in Turkey. I have several colours and they all feel and react slightly differently. I’ve found this with many yarns that one colour feels different to another, either softer/courser or thinner/thicker. The number of times I’ve had to reknit entire pieces because I swatched in one colour but knitted in another and the gauge turned out totally off! I have learned now to swatch in the colour I am actually going to use orrisk making the wrong size. I have black rib at the hem it’s soft and squishy, same rib on the neck in green is stiff nd crunchy. It may soften with washing but making sure it doesn’t sit close in my neck is important ith a crunchy yarn.
With this yarn the black is so soft, I have pink which is thin, several other colours which are each different too.
Could you pick up along the inside of the neckband and add a 2nd band of the black? So the soft, squishy black would be next to your neck? Or just knit a band and sew it in, where it’s touching you?
Oh, just seen this. It’s a good idea to put the softer yarn on the inside, I really like a thin contrast colour at the top of a neckband too which I have done before an seen on other designs, it’s a nice detail. On this I don’t think it would work for the design.
Anyways. it’s done. finished. The neck looks good on and I’m happy with it.
I frogged and reknit the rib, it seemed to be the size of an entire sweater! Faux graft on the outside, folded to the inside and sewn down.
