The Knitting Fiend

I finished the two sleeves and lower body of Jim’s cardigan last night and knit the join row, taking pictures, of course!

Before joining, I always lay the sweater flat and double check the width and length. In the photo, you can just barely see the grey needle tips top and in the center of the sweater. Since this is a cardigan, there is a big split there. You can’t see it here, but I thread yarn through the phony seam stitch between the front and back, and fold along those to measure. Jim’s sweater is 21″ across, measured form edge to edge. That’s just right for my quite slim Jim.

If this sweater were lighter in color, you’d be able to see the front edges don’t meet. To leave room for the button bands, the two front halves are slightly narrower than half the back width. When the sweater is buttoned, and the bands overlap, the front will be the same width as the back.

When I knit the join row, I began knit side facing, and started to knit around the left front, placed a stitch marker, then knit the left sleeve stitches, placed a stitch marker, knit the back, placed a stitch marker, knit right sleeve stitches, placed a stitch marker, and finally knit the right front. Since cardigan has a slit, I’ll turned when I got to the center front and purled back.

Here’s how the knitting looked as I knit the join round.

To the left, I’ve finished knitting across the left front side of the sweater. My pattern (which I’m test knitting) told me to bind off a total of 11 stitches to create underarms on the body. Some patterns don’t have you bind anything off under the arms; that results in a two-dimensional sweater. Since people aren’t two dimensional, unless the designer included lots of ease, that tends to bind.

Now even though I wrote the pattern, I decided to do something different. I put the stitches on a string and I’ll graft them later. That looks more “seamless” than binding off and creating a small seam under the arm. (Later when Jim wears the sweater, he can show off the underarms and say “Look Ma, no seams! ” Whoop-de-doo!)

Ok, so when I got to the 11 stitches I’m supposed to bind off, I put the stitches on a string; I dropped those off the needle, because I will not be knitting these any more. I also put 11 sleeve stitches on a string for the underarm and then put the remaining sleeve stitches on a second circular needle — nearly any tip diameter will do — placed a marker, and began knitting the remaining sleeve stitches.

Taking a decent picture of this process was tricky. At some points, I really do hold the sleeve above as shown. As I get further around, I rotate it down into place above the underarm. Unfortuantely, the second position is really difficult to photograph in navy blue yarn! The important things for a beginner to know are: 1) If you knit the left front with knit side facing, knit the sleeve with knit side facing and 2) start knitting on a stitch right after the last underarm stitch on the string, and knit away from the string. Other than that, position the sleeve anyway you find comfortable. If you do both of these things, the sleeve will pop right into place by the time you finish the join row.

Eventually, I’d knit all the sleeve stitches off the extra needle. At that point, I placed a marker and began knitting the body stitches for the back of the sweater as shown to the left. You just start knitting the stitches immediately after those on the string.

Naturally, I eventually reached the underarm for the other sleeve. Once again, I put underarm stitches on strings, and inserted the second sleeve. When I was finished knitting the sleeve stitches, I knit across the right front. That finished the join row.

I then turned the work purl side facing and purled back, slipping markers as I knit. If you’ve never done this before, you’ll find you need to push the knitting along as you knit the first few rows after joining; the knitting binds on the needles near the sleeve-body join. Don’t take this as a sign you’ve done anything wrong. It will loosen up after a few rows (or rounds if you are knitting a pullover.)

When I finished the purl row, I spread the sweater out on the floor and took two photos. To the left, you can see a detail of the sleeve join. The two slippable markers indicate which stitches are sleeve stitches and which are body stitches. It’s useful to mark the join somehow; you will be working decreases on either side of these markers to shape the raglan and you want to make sure you work the decreases where they belong. I like to use slippable markers, mostly because I tend to knit in the dark watching tv and my eyesight isn’t terrific. People who dislike slipping markers every row might prefer to use safety pins. That’s perfectly fine, but they will have to trace up vertically to identify the exact point of the join. (That said, after you have worked a few of the decrease rows, you’ll be able to “see” the raglan seem and you can toss the markers. )

Here’s how the sweater looks after knitting the join row and purling back. The sleeves are stuffed between the front and back. You can see the underarm stitches on light blue strings; the stitches taken from the sleeve face those taken from the body. When I’m finished knitting the sweater, I’ll graft those to join.

That’s really all you need to know about joining. It’s pretty easy, and since it’s a milestone you’ll always feel pleased with yourself when you get this far.

Before finishing, I’d like to comment on the length of needle you need to knit these things. If you follow anyone’s pattern for seamless sweaters, they’ll tell you that you need a variety of needle lengths. Obviously, you’ll need a fairly long circular needle to hold the stitches at this point. However, you don’t need one quite as long as shown in the picture. I created an extra long needle with my Denise extensions so I could take a decent photo. The “perfect” length at this point is a matter of personal preference; I shorten that needle up when knitting.

Of course, one advantage to using a super long needle is you don’t need to worry so much abuut dropping stitches when you set the work aside, but I avoid that by wrapping rubber bands around the tips.

Yeah. Rubber bands.

The thick kind that come wrapped around my newspaper. Did I mention I’m a cheapo thrifty? What can I say; if I’m going to spend $$$ it’s going to be on yarn!