Sue Ann Parker's Diamond Patch

My Diamond Patch is a 4 across modification. I made the original one 5 across and it was huge, even on me! The yarn did not drape enough to become diamond shaped and relieve the excess width. I took most of it apart and re-knit most of it. Not one patch came out using exactly the same amount of yarn when re-knit, tension changes obviously.

The neck is pretty low with my changes so I have to “stand up straight” (echos of my long gone mother here). Next time I would just make bigger patches and try a 3 patch version, smaller patches would mean more ends to work in. I used Patons Carolina for this one, a cotton/acrylic blend.

I already have yarn for another of Jill's patterns. The “modular” units seem like you are really making a lot of progress when each one is finished, unlike the need to do a whole back or sleeve on more traditional knitting.

Keep scrolling for more sweaters!

Sue's “Blues” Experiment

These two blue sweaters were done from measurements of a favorite sweatshirt and a gauge swatch that so many design articles suggest. I am a slave to patterns so this was a good learning project while reducing stash. The less expensive one (pink striped sleeves) actually is the more comfortable of the two. Maybe some of the ample-knitters who have mentioned limited finances in yarn choices might be inspired to try something for themselves.

I think nearly everyone has a top or two in the closet they can use to obtain measurements, maybe measurements from different parts of tops if the fit is better in different parts, then combine the measurements on a simple drawing of what the sweater should look like when finished. I used my gauge swatch info to determine numbers of stitches I needed for the various parts of my finished sweater.

The raglan decreases were the only “hard” part. I needed to decrease faster than the total number of rows would allow so I did a “design element” of decreasing 2 stitches, knit a plain row, then decreasing 3 stitches, alternately. I don't own the computer programs that do all these things for you when designing sweater patterns, but a pocket calculator is a useful item when doing these math problems.