I am posting to get some advice on a cardigan I made that just doesn’t fit right! This was my first ever thing I knitted (I don’t know why I thought making a fairisle cardigan would be a first good project), it took me a very long time to make, however after finishing it I discovered that when I do wear it the shoulders just don’t fit right.
I’m not sure if it’s just a bit too small or something else, when I sewed it up I used the shoulder seam at the top and YouTube videos to make sure it was properly sewn. I have added pictures to show you (I hope you can see from these) but the shoulders seem to point at the ends and do not lay flat. I have tried it on people who are smaller sizes than me and the same thing happens.
I would really love to wear this cardigan and would really appreciate any help in solving this problem. Thank you so much
A very challenging first project, and you seem to have done remarkably well with it!
It would be helpful to have the name of the pattern, or a link to it if you have one.
I’d also like to see a photo more from your side, so we can see the shape of the curve of the sleeve cap. This is a hard angle to get on yourself, but you can lay the sweater down on its side, so that the sleeve is on top, maybe? That would give us a better idea of the shaping.
Welcome to KH and wow! That’s a gorgeous sweater for any level knitter. Matching up the pattern on sleeves and body is very nicely done.
It may be that you followed the exact contour of the sleeve cap too closely and should have rounded it off a bit more to smooth out the stairstep decrease toward the top. There’s a way to do this as you knit that might be useful in future.
As ColoCro suggested, a photo face on of the sleeve will help.
What yarn did you use?
Could I ask which seaming method you used to put the sleeve cap in? I’m wondering if the top of the sleeve could be sitting up because the seam is a bit bulky. (I’m guessing you might have had to weave in a lot of ends in that small area too, so that might add to the bulkiness.)
As well as a photo of you wearing it from the side, could we see a photo of the problem seam intersection from the inside, looking down on the shoulder seam/sleeve intersection?
I have wrestled with many a sleeve cap, so don’t feel bad that it hasn’t worked first time. The good thing with knitting is that you can nearly always undo and retry things.
Hi, thank you all for your quick replies and advice.
I have added some pictures of the side with me wearing it and without and the inner seam.
I used mattress stitch to attach the sleeve and I used DK acrylic yarn (as that’s all I could afford at the time). As you can see from the pictures I didn’t weave in the ends I just tied and cut them, as it was my first project I didn’t realise that I needed to weave these ends in and had already cut them too short to weave when I discovered this.
I can see the photos now. You did so much right with this cardigan.
It’s not going to be easy to undo the cap to make the very top a gentler slope.
You might try washing and blocking. Rather than laying completely flat to dry, shape the shoulder around a towel or a baloon or something to give it a more rounded shape.
Yes, I would suggest what salmonmac said, re-blocking it over something to hold a round shape in the shoulder. If you have a tailor’s ham, that would be perfect, or you might be able to use a pillow or towel.
Tying knots can work just as well as weaving in ends. Sometimes in Shetland knitting (I think) the knitter would leave all the ends loose and plait them afterwards.
If it works, it’s good!
I agree with the other folks to try gently shaping it. Another thought would be making thin pads out of felt to fill in the gaps around the seams and create a better shape. Just something you woukd have to try and fiddle with to see whether it helped.
It’s a gorgeous cardigan and I love the colours you chose.
Ooh, one more thought. You know how in sewing you press open a seam? What about a gentle version of that – gently press open the seams, maybe with your fingers, and whip stitch them in place with some sewing thread. That way you will have two single layers lying flat either side of the seam rather than one double layer sort of standing up.
Or it might look better to fold the whole top of the arm seam to the sleeve side. Try pinning it or tacking it quickly in various alignments and see if any of them create an improvement.
Amazing accomplishment!
Not only fairisle but a fitted project makes it very difficult.
Finding your perfect fit for an armhole, sleeve cap, shoulder width, upper arm width and so on are more advanced skills which you can learn and perfect over time. Following a pattern to the letter is like buying off the peg garments, they are not tailored to your exact size and shape. If you want the fully tailored to fit result it takes some more learning and practise to modify a pattern to your own exact requirements. This is something I have been exploring and it is amazing how little I know about my own body shape and size!
Getting a better fit might be down to how you seam, weave in, or slope the cap shaping (ie knitting techniques) or it might be that you need a shape for a more sloped shoulder, a less sloped shoulder, a wider shoulder, a lower shoulder (distance from under arm to shoulder bind off)… there are all sorts of alterations possible for the perfect fit.
Acrylic softens and hangs differently after washing, have you washed this yet?
I’d wash it a few times and see if the shoulder softens
You can also look at some videos on steam blocking acrylic (do not touch with the iron but use the steam) as this really softens up the fabric and you can mould it with your fingers into a nice soft curve. Set to cool and dry in a rolled towel as previously advised.
If it still has pointy shoulders you might try adding a small shoulder pad sewn into the cardigan. Probably not what you want but it would help to hold the shoulder in shape and reduce the pointy look.
