Knitting the Circumnavigated Cardigan
Shelda Eggers
Sun, 8 Mar 1998
I've been knitting away on Medrith Glover's Circumnavigated Cardigan. It's a fascinating pattern, lots of “knitterly” details, and it's all done with numbers and percentages so that you measure yourself, measure your gauge, multiply, and get a sweater that fits you!
I decided this was a really good place to start trying to knit things for
myself, plus I had what seems like enough yarn in my voluminous stash (I
think my stash is even more voluminous than I am!), and it was yarn I'm thrilled to use (my parents brought it from NZ ages ago). The CC features raglan shaping, and has notes for different shapings for differently sized bods. You start by casting on an amazing number of stitches (at least I did *grin*),
by an invisible method, work on this huge number of stitches doing
decreases at both ends for slash pockets, fold over and join the
pockets, and then pick up stitches from the invisible c.o. and work a
ribbing in the other direction. Pretty fascinating.
And then you try the sweater on for the first time. I've just done that,
and... it FITS!! I suppose at this point all that really means is that it goes
around me, since I haven't gotten to the more complicated areas yet, but
hey.... I'm SO excited. Grinning from ear to ear, even.
I'll keep you posted on my progress. I'm in a race against the summer heat
because my cardigan is in a heavy worsted wool and I don't have
air-conditioning, but perhaps that will simply be a good incentive. I'm
imagining finishing it, packing it away in the cedar chest, and next fall
taking out my wonderful sweater!
Thu, 12 Mar 1998
I'm frustratingly at a standstill with my Circumnavigated Cardigan,
awaiting a 60” ADDI turbo circular needle. I have a 40” one and I managed to get through the bottom portion of a 60” sweater even with the pocket stitches added on, but I was fighting the needle most of the time, and I
would really prefer not to do that. I sighed a great sigh of relief when
the pocket stitches were joined together with the body stitches, knitting
blithely on, and then realized that when I add on the stitches for the
sleeves I'm going to be in even worse trouble.
Fri, 20 Mar 1998
Do you ever have one of those days where you're at work and all you can think
about is your knitting?! ;^).
I've been stalled for nearly a week on my Circumnavigated Cardigan because
I had decided I didn't want to add the sleeve stitches before I got a new
longer needle. And last night it came! I didn't get home until nearly 11pm, though, and I dutifully made myself *not* play either last night or this morning (I have an exam today). But tonight! Oh goody, oh goody! ;^) I'm so excited about this sweater, and the pattern includes lots of hints for rates of decrease to make the raglan shaping really fit big bodies. I'll let you know how it goes.
Knitting is such a wonderful passion!
Wed, 25 Mar 1998
I only managed to get another three rows knit on my Circumnavigated
Cardigan last night but even that little bit of knitting was a wonderful
balm. Now I just want a long uninterrupted block of time to finish the
shoulder and neck shaping. I can hardly wait to try it on!
Thu, 2 Apr 1998 - Circumnavigated Success!
I got the shoulder shaping all done on my circumnavigated cardigan last
night, and to the point where I could really try it on. And...
*drumroll*... it FITS!!
It even fits *well* ;^). The fiddling with decrease rows, guessing, and
plunging boldly ahead with my fingers crossed all actually worked! The
bottom ribbing goes around my hips smoothly, the shoulders lie nicely, the
neckline appears to be just fine. I had plenty of stitches to do the back
neck. Anyone who plans to do this cardigan in a large size (mine is about
65” around with ease) be sure and also order the “Unlaced and Hot Flash” notes from Medrith as well as the original pattern. The “Hot Flash” suggests increasing the decrease rate dramatically at the beginning of the raglan shaping for bigger sweaters to take up the horizontal width without adding too much height to the sweater.
The “normal” rate of decrease for the sweater is a double decrease every other row until the necessary saddle width is reached. In “Hot Flash” Medrith suggests a double decrease every row for the first few rows. I didn't think that was terribly specific, so I also referred to Medrith's
notes for her husband's “Plumb Crazy” sweater in an older Knitters magazine (sorry, don't have the issue number handy), where she says she tried 5
decrease rounds, then a plain round, and that rate seemed to work. I was
wishing for an actual formula, but then I called on my adventurous spirit
and just carried on with it ;^). It can always be frogged, right? I did two
sets of the 5 decreases, 1 plain; then one set of 3 decreases, 1 plain, and
then continued with the double decrease every other round. This seems to
have worked quite well for this yarn, these needles, and my body.
I'm putting on the front band now, and should finish that tonight. The next
time I try on the sweater it should be looking a good deal more “finished.” It always amazes me what bands can do for a sweater.
I can hardly believe I'm going to have a wonderful sweater that will really
fit me. I've been so focused as I've knit this, and I feel like I'm going
to go skating on through the sleeves and finish. Maybe I better start
planning for my next project!
Wed, 8 Apr 1998
I wish I had more time to knit. Sometimes I think that's my litany! More time to knit, more time to knit!
I've hit a snag with the Circumnavigated Cardigan. Put it down in digust
for only an evening, though, and last night I started working on it again.
But I haven't had the energy to post about it yet. It brings up all my
frustrations about knitting for myself, and believing that nothing is ever
going to be *quite* right in my size.
But that's what I started this list for, so I'll try and post about the
frustrations as well as the successes. That's what support is for, right? ;^)
Thu, 9 Apr 1998
Well, successes and failures: a little bit of each. And musings on knitting
for ample measurements, knitting for me.
I've posted about my Circumnavigated Cardigan several times, most recently
to rhapsodize over how well it fit when I finally got a chance to try it
on. I was ecstatic for a couple of days... problems all solved, perhaps you
know the feeling? ;^) I can do this, I can knit for me! Is it pride they say
cometh before a fall?
I was away from home, and watching a bunch of television at a friend's
house, and I blithely knit away on one of the sleeves, just following
Medrith's directions. I had wondered briefly if the decrease rows (every 8
rounds) would work on my worsted weight sweater as well as on her bulky
weight one, but the decrease proportions had been pretty consistent up to
then. So I didn't try the sweater on again until I had gotten to the end of
the decreases and wanted to see how many more plain rows I needed to knit
to reach my wristbone, which is where I was supposed to decrease and start
the cuffs.
Tried it on, and... hmmm. This sweater doesn't fit so well after all :-(.
When I tried it on before, the sleeves were just gaping holes at about
armhole level, so I wasn't looking too closely at them, just concentrating
on how the shoulders and neck fit. And the shoulders and neck are great.
That hasn't happened before, but what is the *deal* with these sleeves?! It
took a little while to be able to deal with it, to really examine the
sweater and analyze the problems.
Point one was obvious: they're already too long. So in fact the decrease
rows weren't frequent enough on a worsted gauge versus a bulky gauge,
because the stitches that you decrease were only the armhole stitches from
under the arms, which were constant across all sizes (4 inches worth of
stitches).
Point number two: I don't think I'm crazy about the design of the sleeves,
because even with the decrease rate worked out satisfactorily, only the
underarm stitches are decreased, leaving the full width of the upper arm
sleeve stitches at the wrist, ready to be decreased into the cuff. For me
that turned out to be about 90 stitches to decrease into about 45. I think
that's a little fuller sleeve than I'd be comfortable with. And I don't
think my upper arm is particularly large in proportion to my wrist.
Point three: I messed up when I added the stitches for the sleeves. I wrote
down 18” as my upper arm measurement, and figured the number of stitches
based on that figure, but my upper arm measures only 16-1/2”. I'm not at
all sure how that happened: I was tired? I had on a heavy shirt and I
measured over that and thought it would be okay because it was afterall an
outerwear weight sweater? My tape measure was playing tricks on me? I just
don't know. I remember thinking that my upper arm measurement + 4” of ease
seemed like a lot for the sleeve, but that is the proportion for everybody.
Not sure whether I think that it needs to be adjusted for a larger size or
not.
Point four: (And this is where it gets trickier, and where I get into my
“I'll never be able to knit a sweater for me” funk) the problem doesn't
start with the sleeve portion being too big, it starts on the body with the
area underneath the arms being too big. And this is the one I've never been
sure what to do about. My hips measure 64”, my bust 56”. That's an 8” discrepancy, and every sweater pattern I have ever seen is straight up and down, with the exception of sweaters that nip in at the waist. If I go with
my bust measurement, the hips don't fit; if I go with my hip measurement to
make the sweater go around me, it's too big under the arms. And I also have
large breasts so I'm concerned not to make anything too small so that it
pulls over them. This is compounded by the fact that most sweater designs
tend to be drop shoulders, which creates more unneeded fabric around the
arms. I've never found, or knit, a sweater to fit just right in these
areas.
Okay, whine mode off ;^). So what do I DO about this?
In the short term: finish this sweater and deal with the underarm decreases
in a way that minimizes the bulk from the upper arm to the cuff. I've
already started with this, by making a double rows of decreases, two sets
on each side of the central underarm stitch. I figured the number of
stitches I had at the place where I started decreasing (91), then how many
I wanted right above the cuff (55), and figured how many times I would have
to decrease 4 stitches (9 times for a total of 36 stitches decreased). I
already knew how many rows I needed to make it to the wrist from having
done it wrong before (58), so I decided to do this decrease every 6 rounds,
and be left with four rounds plain. I could also have done decreases twice
that often and only done two on each round, but somehow this idea just came
to me and I wanted to try it out. So far it looks fine, and the sleeve is
tapering nicely.
This sweater isn't going to fit as well around the bust and upper arms as I
would have liked, but I don't think the fit is bad enough to take it all
out back to the waist and start over. A learning experience, shall we say?
;^) And it gives me a starting place to work from for my next endeavor. It
was very interesting to take the fabric and manipulate it, and I could tell
a lot from pinning it up (with wooden cable needles) with different slopes
and trying it on again. At least I have actual knitted fabric to play with,
and not just an abstract concept of a sweater.
In the longer term: I keep thinking back to Arnetta Kenney's comment that you need lots of experience to get good at fitting. I'm paraphrasing and taking all
sorts of liberties, but this is what I took from whatever it was she really
said *grin*. So I'm resolved to keep at this. I want to learn to do a good
fitted armhole, and I want to figure out how to do a decrease that works
from my hips to my bustline. *I* go in eight inches between those two
measurements, so it has to be possible to make a sweater that does too!
For years I have wanted to follow Deborah's Newton's instructions in an old
issue of Threads for making a mock-up pattern from knit fabric to plan a
sweater, and I recently found that a friend of mine is an very good
seamstress, and would be able to help with the fitting part of this. She
wants help with a plaster of paris cast of her body for a dressform, so
we've agreed to find a weekend and work on this. I feel like I know a good
deal about knitting for myself that I didn't know when I started this
sweater, and I'm just going to keep at it until I get comfortable designing
in my size.
Wed, 15 Apr 1998
My Circumnavigated Cardigan is all but done, and I'm pretty happy with it
now. The increased underarm decrease rate eased out a great deal of the
extra fullness, and although I do wish there were a bit less fabric in the
body under the arms, I think it's quite satisfactory for an initial effort.
It dawned on me that another reason the sleeves came out too long is that
as you increase the width across the body on a drop shoulder, the sleeves
need to be shorter to compensate.
I need to redo the garter stitch neckband, because I wasn't paying
attention and just followed Medrith's instructuctions for the number of
rows she had used with her bulky yarn, and did that number of rows in my
worsted weight. So the band is too narrow and looks skimpy. At least I get
to practice those buttonholes *just a little groan!*. Another couple of
hours, and I'll be done, done, done. It does look like it will need quite a
bit of blocking to get the pocket area to lie flat, but I'm hoping the wool
is malleable enough to respond to my efforts.
Tue, 21 Apr 1998
My Circumnavigated Cardigan is a FO! I washed and blocked it over the
weekend, and sewed on the buttons last night. It's even cold enough here
today that I might get it out of the cedar chest where I already folded it
and put it away for fall!
I'm terrifically pleased with myself for finishing this sweater in what was
record time for me. I have a bit of a problem with sticking with one
project to its completion! *grin* I've also been awfully busy this winter,
but I started the sweater about mid-February (my knitting diary from Feb.
17th says “Got the Circumnavigated going.”) and it's finished mid-April. Two months feels pretty great for the limited amount of knitting time I have.
I can see places where I would do things differently if I knit this sweater
a second time, but for the most part I'm quite happy with the way it fits.
The blocking helped considerably, and I admit now that I was a bit worried
about the bunchiness of the pockets when I had tried it on prior to
blocking, but this nice wool just smoothed out easily. I asked my father
last night when they went to New Zealand (from whence came the wool for
this sweater), and he thought it was 1984! ;^)
I'm very encouraged by this success to knit up another sweater for myself,
and have been searching through my pattern collection.
Wed, 22 Apr 1998
Betsey wrote:
> Congratulations, Shelda! I am impressed that you got it done in such
> record time. I am a slow knitter and figure it if I make the Circ. Cardi.
> it will take all season long, if not a year.
Thanks, Betsey! As I said, I'm pretty pleased with myself ;^). I have
realized sweaters were taking me so long because I was working on so many
other things at the same time, but that may not be the case for anyone
else. I'm also pretty sure that I'm the queen of procrastination, though I
know there are many other contenders ;^)
> I am curious about what other things you would change if you were to do it
> a second time. Please elaborate!
Well, one of these days I'm going to get up my nerve and start a sweater
with my hip measurements, and then decrease for the waist and bust. Looking
at this sweater critically, though, although it does seem a bit big under
the arms, it doesn't have just lots of extra room across my bust, so I
think there's a bit more to this than I'm realizing somehow. Someone
mentioned short rows over the breast area, which makes a lot of sense to
me, although I haven't yet quite pictured how you would manage it.
But I think the main adaptation that I would make is to add less stitches
for the sleeves. I made a mistake when I measured my arms, and somehow used
2” more stitches than I should have, but even so, I think that the way the
sweater works in a larger size (I have 64-inch hips) is that as you
increase the width of the sweater, you change the place where the sleeves
join the sweater body. There is a line of stitches across the sleeve
(rather ingenious, I think, you cast off stitches, then pick them back up
from underneath so that you form a decorative line and hide the fact that
you've switched from knitting up to knitting down), and on me that line
hits just above my elbow. So to cast on enough stitches for my upper arm
was too many stitches at that point.
Thus I have a lot of fullness in the sleeves that I don't need (there's
also 4 inches of ease calculated for the sleeve in addition to the
circumference of your upper arm). I hope that makes sense. I decreased the
sleeve dramatically after I started knitting just on the sleeve stitches,
because to change at that point (because of the knit all-in-one-piece
design of the sweater) would have meant frogging all of the shoulder and
neck shaping, as well as the front bands, something I wasn't convinced was
necessary. I more than doubled the decrease formula that Medrith
recommends, however. And I'm happy with the sweater, but I would play with
the number of sleeve stitches if I do it a second time.
> I have to be honest with myself, though - I seldom
> actually wear w.w. wool sweaters! I can't help but think I really should do
> it in cotton or a blend. I wonder how many of us other ample knitters “run
> hot,” so to speak, and rarely wear wool.
I also run hot, and I have decided that in general I'd like my sweaters to
be lighter rather than heavier. I did this sweater in a worsted weight
rather than the bulky that Medrith used, and I don't think I'd wear it in a
bulky weight. It's still a fairly heavy sweater, but the cardigan shaping
makes it wearable for me because I can, and probably will, leave it open.
Medrith also mentions another version she made using Saucy cotton, and I
think it would work up nicely in that yarn.
Thu, 17 Dec 1998
I'm wearing my Circumnavigated Cardigan from last winter's
knitting, and am just thrilled every time I put it on at how well it fits
me. I told my mother it feels like a warm hug every time I put it on ;^).
Sun, 19 Mar 2000 - Reflections, two years later
It's hard for me to believe my Circumnavigated Cardigan is almost two years old! It's held up very well, I recently de-pilled it, but it looks more or less “like new” still.
The fullness under the arms that I wrote about above has never really bothered me much, although I do still think it would be a useful exercise to change that on a second sweater.
I must say that I love the sweater. I wear it often, frequently get compliments on it (especially after I say I made it myself!), and I'm very pleased for what part my picture in my sweater played in getting the Ample-Knitters list started on a Circumnavigated group knit-along.
I will definitely make this sweater a second time, at least! Thanks to Medrith for such a wonderful sweater experience!
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