The Knitting Fiend

Is it too late to join the Top down knit along? My top down Raglan cardigan is moving along quickly, and I just love the Sinfonia cotton. Raglans knit top down require paired increases at four points. Everyone has their favorite increase. Mine is called the “lifted increase”, and I work them symmetrically: Knit until there is 1 stitch remaining before marker. Increase a stitch as follows: Insert tip of right hand needle into the the back bar behind the next stitch. Wrap the yarn over the right hand needle and knit a stitch into this loop. Don’t drop the stitch on the left needle tip.See the photo to the top left; I snapped a picture just after forming this increased stitch. Click that photo for a larger image with labels indicating the stitch below and the new stitch. (I call this a L1B for “L1 Before” because you lift a stitch before knitting the stitch you are increasing into.. Knit into the next stitch. Slip marker. Knit a stitch. Increase as follows. Insert the tip of the left hand needle into the bar of the stitch two below the stitch you just created when you knit the previous stitch. (See figure from top right.) Pull slightly to the left to make an opening. Poke the right tip into the hole. Yarn over and knit. This makes a second increase. I call this an L1A because you increase by lifting a stitch after knitting into a stitch. After you finish the increase, the work will look as show below and to the left. Knit to the end of the row. After you work a large number of increases, the work will look as pictured below and to the right. I think it looks like stitches magically growing out of one bold center stitch.

You can’t really see this diagonal line until after you’ve worked 3 or 4 increases; do use the stitch markers when you start knitting a yoke. As you knit, and can begin to see the distinct diagonal line, you may decide to drop the stitch markers. Or maybe not. (I keep them. But, then, I often knit in a darkened room while Jim watched tv. I know I’ve reached the increase when I get to the marker.)

If you begin knitting from the top down, you’ll want to teach yourself a number of paired increases. Some form neat little holes, which look good on delicate sweaters; some are nearly inconspicuous. Barbara Walker discussess 10 different paired increases on page 20 of her book “Knitting from the Top”. Her increase #9 is closest to mine, but she works an extra stitch between the increases. That makes the diagonal line formed by her increase wider than mine; I like the bolder line for men’s wear. I may use it for Jim’s next raglan.

Of course, for now, the pattern generator I’m writing up uses this increase!

Stumble it (and place in Knitting/crochet!)

4 Comments

1. […] To increase 1 stitch in from the edge, I modify the technique described in “paired increases for raglans”. Of course, since the stitches facing me were purls, I purled. The principle of purling into the bar of the stitch below isn’t any different than knitting into the stitch. You just lift the bar as to purl, and purl. Of course, since I only need to increase 1 stitch on each edge, I also didn’t increase on both sides of a single stitch. When increasing on the right edge, I increased before the second stitch from the edge. That is to say, I worked the edge stitch (which happened to be a purl), then I increased 1 stitch in the bar of the stitch below the next stitch, then I worked the next stitch (which was usually a purl in this case.) […]

   Pingback by The Knitting Fiend » Blog Archive » Aran: Joined back and front. (291 comments.) — 9/14/2005 @ 5:04 pm

2. […] One final choice affects the appearance of the crown; that is the increase method. I increased by knitting into the front and back of one stitch. You could work yarnovers, which would leave holes; single lifted increases would also be nice and smooth. […]

   Pingback by matchedThe Knitting Fiend » Blog Archive » Ear Flap Hat Illustrated ( comments.) — 11/8/2005 @ 5:37 pm

3. […] the knitting fiend has great directions for paired lifted increases […]

   Pingback by matchedYsolda » Blog Archive » Matilda Jane resources ( comments.) — 4/27/2006 @ 5:55 am

4. […] I think this looks just the way a gusset should look! The reason I love L1As and L1Bs is they make it possible to organize a variety of decorative increases. The key is to carefully decide when to work the “L1B”, when to work the “L1A” and decide how many stitches to work between the two decreases. For other nice looking uses of lifted increases seen “paired raglan increases”. […]

   Pingback by matchedThe Knitting Fiend » Blog Archive » Work Gusset for Toe Up Sock ( comments.) — 5/26/2006 @ 8:14 am

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