Hi
I have finished the final sleeve. All pinned together.
I am starting the border. Do you have any tips before I bombard you with questions?
Shaping Raglan
Bombard away!
I like to mark off the border in sections so that I can pick up fairly evenly. Marking of in halves or quarters, whatever makes sense to you really helps distribute the picked up sts.
And congrats on finishing the body of the sweater. Just the border to go.
Thanks but without all the help on here, I dot think I’d have got this far. S learning curve that’s for sure but I love it.,
Would joins show if say, I did one side first then shoulders and back followed by the other side if front?
If you have a long circular needle, that would be the ideal way to complete the band in one piece. Join the raglans, then pick up all the way around.
If you want to do it in sections, add on an extra stitch for the seam and take those sts in to account when you work the ribbing.
To me it’s just much easier and cleaner to work the entire band at one go.
Perhaps it’s just me but i think I’d want to do all the seams before starting a button band so that everything was fully together before I started to knit. I don’t like my knitting pinned any longer than absolutely necessary in case it gets pulled on. And I wouldn’t want the pieces moving whilst I tried to add the band.
My tip for button band is binding off in pattern or another way to provide a not too tight bind off.
Looking great by the way.
I am so confused now.
However, I do know why the body is slightly too short…I miscalculated!
I have also added a new link as I couldn’t see anything of our chat until just now. Most odd.
The border isn’t the button band then?
It has no other instructions after this:
After this, all it says is sew the seams and sew on the buttons.
Thank you.
I miscalculated the body by an inch!
All a learning curve.
I won’t be buying a Sirdar pattern again.
The border includes the buttonhole band, neckline and button band in one continuous row of sts.
You’ve succeeded with this pattern against all odds! I’d say you’re on your way to being a Sirdar expert. Good luck with the border
Some times the forum goes down.,don’t panic it always comes back eventually. I always panic though, I can’t live without it now!
Did you see my message? - you need to join your raglan seams before you start the border which is also the button band. The diagonal parts which join sleeves to the two fronts and the back are the raglan seams.
Since you’re sweater body is shorter than the directions plan for you will need to adjust the postion of the buttonholes (the cast offs and cast ons). Place pins or markers spaced along the straight part of the sweater front as you would like the buttonholes and then work the cast offs at those spots rather than following the pattern stitches. The cast ons are easier since you’ll just cast on when you come to the gap created by the cast off.
(This post duplicates on in the other thread just in case.)
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I forgot which size you are making but for the smallest size on the border, rib to last 44, cast off 2, rib 10, cast off 2, rib 10, cast off 2, rib 10, cast off 2, rib 2
These are all the button holes. On the next row you cast ON when you go past the same place which relink the knitting and forms the hole.
You can do this (but join your raglan seams first)
Oh thanks for that.
Much appreciated.
Thank you so much.
This was a practice one and it’s the first size.
Just found the replies - they usually come up straight away but I have to click the down arrow.
Thanks for all your help.
Are you based in the USA too?
This is such an amazing site.
No I’m in the UK.
I think the forum just went down for a bit, it happens time to time.
Your cardigan looks great!
I saw you made the body short. One idea is to buy an emroidery-englaise trim or a wide lace ribbon trim and sew under the rib bottom making it a permanent feature. In the UK it might be called a shumper (shirt and jumper but in this case it is a mock blouse bottom rather than shirt collar and cuffs . Maybe blumper would be a better term). It’s one way to lengthen in a pretty way. I would choose embroidery-englaise as I think it would suit the little eyelet lace pattern in this cardigan.
What a great idea- thanks. I live in UK too but it’s great to be talking to people who are interested in the same things.
There is a craft group at the church I go to so I may pop along there next week.
Yes, the body was short but by mistake - I hadn’t measured it properly!
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I realised this morning that I had not miscalculated the measurements so I wrote Sirdar to ask them why they thought that my the bottom of my cardigan was an inch or 2 cm or so shorter than the pattern indicated. I told them that I measured the back from the neck right down to the rib They asked whether I had measured from the shoulder down. Do you know what that means? Don’t know if you can you could clarify that for me, thank you
Sure, the final back measurement is from the bind off at the top of the shoulder to the cast on. That bind off is where many sweaters join the front to the back. There’s usually some sts on hold for the neck and then the shoulder is a few rows higher.
However for a raglan, the back may just be one continuous bind off (no raised shoulder). In that case the measure you gave is the length of the back.