The Knitting Fiend

I found more yarn; I can finish the ribbing — and the whole sweater! (Yay! )

So, I’ve recovered from the SuperBowl, and begun.

I generally find that 2 x 2 ribbing, knit 2 tension settings tighter than the body of the sweater works out very nicely on sweaters knit in stockinette or fairisle. This type of ribbing tends to be springy, and hugs just enough for a sweater. If I were just knitting sweater from bottom to top, I cast on the ribbing, knit the length I want, transfer the stitches to the main bed, increase the tension setting and continue knitting. I don’t need to increase or decrease the number of needles in work.

Still, when designing, I always knit a ribbing swatch and see how it looks before and after pinning to the sweater fabric. I did one this time and you can see some photos here. Both the ribbing swatch and the stockinette swatches shown are knit with needles between -20 and 20 on the machine. (I always call this 40 needles. That seems conventional, despite the fact that if you literally counted the number of needles being used on both beds, it might be a different number). The stockinette swatch is 80 rows long, the ribbing is only 20 rows long.

Not surprisingly, even though the ribbing uses the same number of needles, the stockinette is wider. However, I find I can easily stretch the ribbing to the width of the stockinette (or wider if I wanted to do so.)

To test the compatibility of this ribbing and stockinette, I pinned the ribbing to the stockinette to get an idea how how 40 needles worth of ribbing draws in 40 needles worth of stockinette. As it happens, I like the way it looks. It draws in just the right amount. (I could also stretch the ribbing out while steaming if I wanted to avoid hug at the bottom. That’s a nice thing to try on a swatch if you are knitting for a woman with hips– like me!)

For my current project, I need to attach the ribbing to a sideways knit cardigan. But, I want the ribbing to draw the edge in the same way as for a vertically knit sweater. So, to calculate the number of needles to use for the ribbing, I found the length of the edge which needs ribbing attached. Then, I used the stitch gauge of stockinette to find the number of stitches of stockinette that would result in that length. Then, I used that number of needles for the ribbing.

I’ve knit that– but I’ll show you tomorrow, when I hope I’ll also have the button bands done.