I attempted to knit my first top down sweater (Emery by Wood House Knits) but had to give up after two attempts. When I tried on the first attempt (at the point you create the armholes) the neck was too high. I made a second attempt using slightly larger needles and the neck was wide (as it should be) but was again too high. This has put me off attempting a top down sweater in the future but there’s some beautiful patterns out there. Are there any special techniques? What was I doing wrong?
That is discouraging. Are you getting stitch and row gauge and if not, how far off are you? Row gauge is going to determine how high the neck is here.
Many top down sweaters start off knit back and forth with cast ons at the front neck to complete a circle. If the neck is too high, you may need to add a row or 2 between cast ons in order to lower it.
You cast on for the neck, knit 12 rows in pattern and then knit in stocking stitch increasing for the raglan seams as you knit
You might try casting on for the shoulders, back and part of the front at each side. Knit back and forth for a couple of rows, then cast on at each end and join to knit in the round. Finish 12 rows total (count 12 rows on the back) and continue with the pattern.
Try this out on a swatch first to see when seems like a good time to cast on the center front sts and to test out whether this lowers the neck enough to be comfortable for you.
Well I’ve started a tried and tested bottom up with that yarn now however that is something I can try in the future. I don’t want to have to avoid any patterns I like because they’re top down (especially since this particular designer’s designs are exclusively top down and they’re gorgeous)
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If I would be you, I would not give up on top down sweaters because you failed with this particular pattern. What I am trying to say is that even if this particular pattern would have been bottom up, you would probably been getting the same result. It is an raglan design and the shape becomes the same regardless of direction. Maybe the pattern was bad?
Very seldom I follow any pattern and most of the time I knit freely and because of this I prefer top down sweaters because they allow me to test the critical parts as I knit. Thus I think top down is a very good technique to conquer.
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