The Knitting Fiend

I’ve started to write the calculator to chart out “Olympic Circle”, my entry in “The Knitting Olympics”. Because we can’t cast on until Feb. 10, I’m in the weird position of describing how to design the sweater and do the calculations before revealing the actual sweater.

I’m can’t help but think this is confusing! Oh well. (Hey, what am I going to do? Not blog for 5 days, then catch up after the Olympics? NOT! )

Ok, so just accept that there will eventually be a sweater design, and a calculator to let you adapt the sweater to your size and knitting gauge. The calculator will permit you to imitate my sweater exactly or create a similar sweater. To use the calculator you’ll need to knit some swatches and enter data. Of course, the knitter will be required to knit the usual square swatch. I knit a swatch in stockinette which was approximately 5″ tall by 5″ wide, washed the swatch, measured, calculated and determined my gauge was 4 st/inch and 5.6 rows/inch both before and after washing. (If you don’t know how to knit a swatch, or just don’t want to do calculations yourself, read “How to knit a swatch”.)

The design calls for a long cable swatch to encircle the shoulders. The knitter can select any cable pattern they like, provided it is no more than 15 stitches and no less than 6 stitches across — not counting the selvedge stitches. To get a good fit and nice placement of the cable, for adult women, the cable row repeat should end up no longer than 3″ in length. (At the row gauge I achieved, this is about 17 rows .)

For my design, I chose “Bobble Cable” which is normally 11 stitches wide and has a row repeat of 16. I modified this by eliminating one stitch on each edge, resulting in a 9 stitch wide panel. Then, I added two selvage stitches so I would be able to pick up stitches along the edge.¹

When I finished knitting the swatch, I washed it. After letting it air dry, I inserted needles just inside the selvedge stitches and measured the across the 9 stitches and found the cable is about 1 3/8″ wide. The knitter will need to measure this value and enter it in the calculator, since this value is considered when shaping the yoke.

Gosh, I’m aching to cast on!

Total stitches: 9 stitches for panel plus 2 selvedge stitches.²
Row Repeat: 16 rows.

Row 0: (Right side) — K1, p1, k7, p1, k1.
Row 1: and all odd number rows: — P1, k1, p7, k1, p1.
Row 2: K1, p1, RT7, p1, k1.–Twist row.
Row 4: K1, p1, K7, p1, k1. (Same as row 0.)
Row 6: Repeat row 4.
Row 8: Repeat row 2.–Twist row.
Row 10: Repeat row 4.
Row 12: Repeat row 4.
Row 14: K1, p1, k3, MB, k3, p1, k1 — Bobble Row.
Row 16: Repeat row 4.

Repeat rows 1 – 16. (Row 0 is a set up row.)

When knitting the panel for the sweater, If grafting, provisional cast on with waste yarn and begin knitting with row 6. end by knitting a row 4; the graft will create a row 5.

If sewing begin by knitting row 5, end by knitting row 5 and seam.

The purpose of beginning on rows 5 or 6 is to permit you to graft on a plain row with no twists or bobbles above or below.

When picking up stitches for the sweater, pick them up inside the selvedge stitch. The knit ridge on the right side makes it very easy to see that you picked up right along the edge.

When designing your sweater, if you use the cable I chose and find it measures 1 3/8″ between the two selvedge stitches, enter this in the calculator:

• Stitches across cable = 9. (Note, this does not include the 2 selvedge stitches.
• Cable width= 1.375″.
• Cable row repeat= 16 rows.

If you pick a different cable, add two selvedge stitches to the directions. When measuring the width, measure between the two selvedge stitches. Then, when using the calculator, enter the number of stitches between the selvedge stitches.