The Knitting Fiend

They are both plain old cardigans. The patterns for the beige one, and 3 variations, are shown in Vogue Knitting, Fall 2005.

Vogue Knitting included an article discussing how easy and wonderful it was that you could vary a simple pattern. The other versions had fun fur trim, a larger collar, a hood and one was a v-neck. It’s true; it is easy and wonderful that you can add fun fur cuffs, or a collar! Still, it seems to me some people might want to apply their ideas to a wider range of sizes. Since recalculating for other sizes is, the hard part of customizing, I thought people might want to see how my patterns, which are really generators, might help them create their own styles.

I just finished Jim’s cardigan, and a generator to create a long sleeve crew neck cardigan pattern in a huge range of sizes and yarns. Here’s how it compared to what’s in Vogue:

Sizes: Vogue provides 4 finished chest measurements for women’s sweaters. These are 36″, 40″, 44″, and 48″. I provide pull down menus for ten women’s sizes between 37″ and 49.5″, ten for men’s sizes between 34″ - 52.4″ and nine kid’s sizes with chest dimensions between 23.4″ (for size 2) and 37″ (for size 16). I also provided “custom” pulldown menus which permit you to modify dimensions if you like.

Waist Shaping (1): Vogue’s cardigan nips in 2″ at the waist, which is flattering to many women’s figures. My cardigan is unshaped as are many commercial sweaters.

Shoulder Shaping (2):There are two important issues regarding shoulder shaping. One is decorative and obvious; the other is structural and less obvious.

The shoulder decrease on a raglan is often embellished by picking nice looking decreases to create the raglan line. Vogue pattern directions guide the knitter to work the decreases a few stitches in from the shoulder itself. This result in plain, but bold looking raglan decreases. My basic pattern directions will result in narrower decreases, but provides links to directions to insert a cable in the shoulder decrease or to put stitches between the raglan decreases to make the decrease wider (which would look just like Vogue’s shoulder decreases.)

Although less obvious, the rate of you decrease is structural, and affects the fit of the sweater. My pattern will instruct the knitter to decrease a few stitches all at once under the armholes. Because people are 3 dimensional, and not built like cardboard cutouts, these decreases tend to result in a better fit than instructions like those in Vogue knitting, which omits them. Vogue’s pattern also, quite mysteriously, has the knitter decrease at a rate of 1 stitch every 2 rows for a while, and later change to 1 stitch every 4 rows for size small only. Had a rate like that been necessary to achieve the desired armhole depth, my pattern would have placed the slow 1 stitch/ 4 row decreases before the faster decreases. (If you are wondering why I wouldn’t decrease slowly at the top of a sweater neck, repeat “my shoulders are not shaped like a cone”, and then look at how the neck does not lay flat on the shoulders on this cape. Of course, that picture is an exaggeration of an effect I call “neck cone”. But, if you begin to decrease too slowly on a cardigan, the “shoulders” will turn up and become a turtleneck or cowl neck collar. That’s good when you want the neck to turn up, but bad if you want the sweater shoulders to lay flat on your shoulders. )

Button Bands (3):Vogue placed the top button just below the neckband. My top button is on the neck band. That said, my instructions suggest you knit the button band last and that, if you like, you can put pins on the other one to decide where to place them. (Otherwise, you can calculate, and I provide a link to the tool.)

Neck Band (4): Vogue’s neck band opening and mine are roughly the same width and depth for sweaters with equal chest dimensions. I give optional directions to raise the back neck, which many people prefer on raglan sweaters. (The method is fairly easy to work out when knitting in the round, and involves short rows. It’s actually a pain in the neck to describe when working flat.)

Bicep (Sleeve) Dimension:If you use my default toggles, the sleeve dimension on my sweaters will be tighter than on Vogue’s sweater. If you like loose sleeves, toggle your size to fill the boxes, then toggle “custom”, then increase the sleeve width!

Over all length:The default length my sweater and Vogue’s are comparable for similar chest sizes.

Convenience / Clarity: This is obviously a toss up.

A static pattern in a magazine is always most convenient and usually more clear than my patterns– provided you want to make that exact sweater with those exact features.

My “patterns” are fall between “patterns” and programs. When you pull down the menu, the form fills and shows you a huge assortment of dimensions for various features of the sweater. I often provide more information than other patterns; this is because I want to know that information. If you don’t understand the significance of the “back neck depth”, don’t worry about it. (Or email, and I may take a photo and explain.)

My pattern instructions also included extra information to verify your stitch counts at specific points during knitting, or to help knitters who may to further modify the pattern. I also I often warn people to recalculate if they discover their gauge is off. I do this because it’s easy to modify — just visit the form again! Why knit the yoke incorrectly if you can discover your gauge is off by using your sleeve gauge to verify your gauge?

That said, all this results in wordy instructions. Evidently some people hate that; some people like it. To each their own.

Of course, I have to admit: my pattern instructions probably have typos. Not in the calculations so much as the words. I say “probably” because if I found them, I’d fix them. But, they are probably there. ( If you find mis-spellings and grammar problems, do email me! I’ll fix them when possible. Just no lectures about how I should be more “detail oriented” and how typos are a blight on civilization. They’re not. Ok?) Vogue has copy editor who proof read. So, if reading “teh” gives you such a headache you can’t finish the sweater, stay away from the web!

I think those are the essential comparisons. So, to summarize: You can knit a woman’s basic crew neck raglan’s using using my program or following Vogue’s instructions. If you want more sizes, either go hunting or use my program! Both Vogue and I think you should have fun embellishing and customizing your sweater. I can’t speak for Vogue, but I can tell you this: