Math twice, knit once:

I think this should be the knitter's counterpoint to the carpenter's mantra of "measure twice, cut once."   The reason the photos show an item with the bottom edge of loose stitches hanging free is that I didn't math twice-- not even once, really.  I followed the somewhat unspecific advice given by Barbara Walker in Knitting From the Top for a "classic raglan pullover," not stopping to think that I was planning to make a pullover with a wider and deeper neck than the one she describes as "classic."  So I cast on stitches so the back neck width would be around 10 inches, and then increased at the raglan seams every other row.  Once I reached the point where it was time to divide for front, back and sleeves, I realized that I was going to have a sleeve circumference of somewhere around 13 inches at the upper arm (about right for my purposes), and a bust circumference of around 41 inches (about 6 inches too many).  Oops.

Well, Barbara does mention that it may "be necessary to depart from the standard rate of increasing."  Unfortunately for me, if I had decreased the frequency of raglan increases for all sections (back, front and sleeves), then the sleeves would have ended up being too tight, and if I had only decreased the frequency of increases for front and back, then the stitch pattern would not have mitered nicely at the raglan seam.  So it quickly became clear that I would have to frog and start over from the beginning, and the only way to keep the basic idea and use the same stitch pattern would be to make the back and front narrower at the neck, and the sleeve sections wider.

To be honest, I'm not sure I am loving this idea, although I will give it another chance before I move onto something else.  When I swatched for this project, I really liked the stitch pattern, which is a four-stitch cable with eyelets; the decreases move from side to side with each cable section, causing the cable to wave back and forth.  I wonder why I like non-symmetrical wavy patterns so much (see here, and here, and here), and why I keep trying to make them work with raglan seams.... 

Comments

[Joan]

Forget math and measuring and having to fit--that is one gorgeous sweater yoke!

[connie]

I agree, it looks gorgeous. Sorry you had to rip. I hate that when it happens.

[Janet Daniels]

My favorite entries to read are the technical ones with photos. Its good to see and hear your thinking. I can relate to the need to do the math. But, the knitting is gorgeous!

I'm enjoying the lace work on the Chinese Lace Pullover. I'm using a butter-yellow Marisol organic cotton called Sam'pa.

[Tina]

For me, the best ratio is 60/40 - meaning of the total number of stitches to cast on, I divide into 20% for sleeve 1, 30% for back, 20% sleeve 2, 30% for front... That seems to work out very well for me - I don't know that if that helps, but after doing a number of weird raglans on myself with strange raglan seams in order to fit, these proportions seem just about right.

A beautiful start!!

[Mrs MJW]

Your sweater is looking lovely!