11/28 ~ The placket came out beautifully. After the underarm will be the boring part, miles and miles of stockinette.

11/26 ~ Okay, this baby’s done. I have all the bits and pieces figured out and this last knit is (so far) flawless. I’ll post some final pics when a get to the bottom of the armholes.

I learned a lot on this one. I think I’m going to love the new placket sweater. The buttonholes are fabulous and easy. If I make this iteration again I may choose something other than seed stitch for the placket … maybe. It does look really good though.

11/23 ~ I hope I’m on the last knit of this. The last test-knit was so close to perfect. If I hadn’t had one of my increases wander a bit I would have kept and used it. I have three test knits to frog, one pullover test knit to finish into a sweater (I hope) and the placket version cast on and a few rows into the collar. If I can get it past Point B satisfactorily it will be a sweater.

11/21 ~ Test fit was AWESOME! No fuss, no adjusting, it fell into place and fits perfectly! Woot!

11/20 ~ Sometimes seeing what I’ve done in Stitch-Maps helps me better understand how to tweak to improve it. Today was such a case.

Here’s the front turn sequence for the 11/19 photos. It’s good, but I think it can be better. Seeing it charted helped me see I had a cluster of turns (bottom right corner) that could be managed differently/better (maybe, must test). This turn sequence is what I’m going to knit today. Will unclustering the turns improve the work? As they say, the proof is in the pudding.

11/19 ~ I’ve revisited a different iteration of increases/turns and it truly is better. I still need to work it a few times to have it mastered but I’m really close. The neck shape of the placketed pullover is really nice. I’m going to let it sit for the night and will test fit it in the morning to determine what other adjustments are needed.

In this test I’ve done a few things I need to fix in the next attempt.

• The placket has a 3-stitch icord edge which should be bordered by a purl column which should start right at the bottom of the collar. I missed the mark on both of these so frogging back is pretty much a must.
• The bottonhole needs to be moved one stitch toward the edge of the placket icord edge … I think. I’ll have to take a good look at it once the purl stitch is done. It might be a visual thing and with the icord edge defined, might be exactly where it’s supposed to be.
• The short row turns on the left front, as worn, has a better appearance. On the right side, as worn, I wrapped the yarn around the needle in the advised direction and it’s quite a bit messier (don’t know what other descriptive word to use) and whispers “look at me, over here, notice me!” Yeah, bit players don’t get lines in my play so I’ll make the switch when I reknit.

I may do a second column of purl to define the body side of the placket. Maybe. I’ll test it and see how it looks.

Here are the instructions for this neck. These are generic instructions for anyone playing with conti-rag.

• The back neck shaping is the standard conti-rag back neck shaping. The turns are done at (stitches between turns) 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3 with an eight stitch separation in the center back (fill is done in navy cotton, see photo). The exact same turn frequency was used for the front with the same stitch separation, four stitches from start of placket, total of eight stitches. Because the placket is 6 stitches wide, this makes the flat part of the front a little wider than the back which is how it should be.
• All the increases are worked on the right side row.
• Only two/three evenly spaced front shoulder increases and no front raglan increases are worked until the back neck shaping is complete. I think I did the first on row four and the second on row eight.
• The front shadow wrap turns (all turns in this test are shadow wraps) are done (stitches between turns) at one stitch between turns in two separate forays. With the goal to improve the vertical drop at the neck edge, I knit to two stitch before the first front shaping turn marker and turned in the next stitch. The next row knitted (purled) to the front is worked to two stitches before the previous turn with a turn worked in the next stitch. Repeat for half (if even) or half-plus-one (for odd number) of the back turns. The second iteration of turns is worked between the previous turns in the same manner starting in the stitch between the first and second turns made. Make all the subsequent turns in the stitches between the previously worked turns until all the back neck shaping is complete. Set the front raglan markers and start working the normal frequency front shoulder and front raglan increases. Work the front neck shaping turns exactly as you did the back, turning, working all the way around to the other front and turning until all neck shaping rows are complete.

11/12 ~ This is the iteration I’m running with. Working up from the Point C stitch count doesn’t work. The key is to work off the collar to Point B and calculate the stitch increase frequency to get to the right stitch contact C.

11/10 ~ I am switching to this SRT for the front drop. Ignore all the other stuff, just look at the front turn.

Knitting off a pre-knit collar

11/9 ~ SRT notes. Every drop SRT must use two stitches in the turn. I’m currently doing a GSR turn for this using two collar stitches but will try other options before settling on one.

• Knit collar
• (Optional) Work two to four collar offset rows across back with the SRTs worked within the front drop margin
• Work first shoulder doing back neck shaping SRTs in the back and drop SRTs in the front
• Work second shoulder as the first, skipping the first three rows. This allows the increases (and row count) to match so they can all be knit in the same row on the right side of the work.
• Work front shaping SRTs working across the full width of the back
• Work in the round continuing the increase sequence for the shoulder until the row count for shoulder line is reached.

11/8 ~ I’m still working on streamlining the turns and increases for a more intuitive combination while still producing the right neck opening shape. Here’s the stitch map for the current iteration. I won’t know if this is golden until I’ve knitted through to Point C and can test-fit.

I had to space out the increases to a 75% ratio to get the sleeve stitch count match up at Point B for this yarn/needle combo. I’m using twinned turns to reduce the forcing at the collar connection. A GSR produces a double-stack stitch (2-stitch column). The twinned turn produces a zero-stitch column. I think this is a better choice.

And finally (for today), I think I hit on a scheme to ensure I get the same row count/increase match from one shoulder to the other while using a pre-knit collar. I skipped the first two rows for the second shoulder and making the first short row turn at the second SRT location. To put it another way, I start with row three with it’s collective increases and front SRTs.

Oh, shoot. One more thing. When I knit the stockinette rows at the base of the collar for the shoulder standoff I worked them over the back 2/3-3/4 placing the SRTs where they would flow with the shoulder creation. So far so good.

11/6 ~ This iteration isn’t perfectly perfect but it is very very good. I love the slanted ribbed collar. I don’t quite have the combination of front shoulder increases and short row turns perfect … but I’m really close. I’m going to start the front every-other-row shoulderline increases sooner, on the second or third heading-toward-the-front row. I’ve test fit it and it’s very good. The shoulders fit beautifully.

Notes for the back … DO NOT do any increases on the first toward-the-back row, do ONLY the back raglan OR shoulder line (not both) on the second toward-the-back row and proceed as normal after that. I’ve still got a bit too much forcing at the neck for the back portion of the shoulder. It’s minuscule but it’s there.

Rather than doing GSR, I’m doing twinned turns and liking the result.

10/25 ~ My latest attempt has a really good balance of everything. If I were to recreate it I would work more stockinette rows after finishing the collar ribbing (2 or 3 more than the original 2 I knit). My back neck shaping is 3 short row turns at 0 stitch intervals, 2 SRTs at 1 stitch interval and 2 SRTs at 2 stitch intervals. The matching front SRTs are worked at a zero stitch interval.

To get the drop I want I worked no front raglan increases over the course of this shaping and worked only three front shoulder increases over 9 rows, one in the first row, one in the fifth row and one in the 9th row.

Once the second shoulder was complete and matched the first I set the front raglan marker, worked all shoulder and raglan increases as normal and worked four short row turns on each front at a two-stitch between spacing. This gave me the correct nearly 2” difference between center back and center front.

I have one slight bubble behind the right back raglan at the neck edge. I know it’s there and will delay the first back raglan increase to avoid this in future.

I won’t frog this as it’s just too close to perfection but I will note these things:

• the slight bubble at the apex of the back raglan and collar will require delaying the back raglan increase by one row. This is entirely cosmetic and only important to me or anyone else carrying my anal gene.
• the too-abrupt transition between the front short row turns (zero freq and 2 freq) requires a more gradual transition. In future I will adjust the number of zero-freq SRTs and the first two-freq SRT for a few knit the prev SRT, knit one, SRT. I will keep the total number of front SRTs the same as the depth of the neck opening and the tilt of the collar is perfect.

10/23 ~ Woot! I’ve achieved success! I know I have to knit six more of these in varying gauges to really understand all the relationships but I have already learned so much! The drop is perfect, the stitch count back to front is nearly perfect. No bubbles, it lays flat and smooth with no stress in the fabric.

The key to this is no raglan increases and only two front shoulder increases (worked in the rows before the fourth and eighth SRT) until the back stitch count and the front stitch count match. Back raglan and shoulder increases are worked as usual. Then the front SRT sequence follows what was used for the back. There will be between three and four times the reserved stitches at the center front but the shape will be very good.

I’ll get a Stitch-Map written for this. It’s pretty crafty and produces a beautiful shape from a pre-knit crew/mock turtle/turtleneck collar.

10/22 ~ The new collar is very Rata Novus … I like it! If I end up having to reknit on US5 I’ll do a third iteration of the pattern and make the collar taller.

I think I’m too tired to explain what I did. I’m not so certain telling you what I did is of any value when it’s something I’m frogging and changing because I’m 17 stitches short of the count I need on the front. What I did is good but I have to have those stitches so I have to retrench and rethink.

10/20 ~ Yesterday I did a provisional caston using the same yarn (different color) using the Point C numbers and working up toward the neck. I’m thinking working at this from another direction will provide some clarity. Working from the bottom up is helping me clarify how I want the spreadsheet to work. Instead of projecting numbers from the top down, if I do the calculations from C up I will have a better distribution of stitches and I can nail down how to get a true vertical drop at the neck edge using conti-rag. We’ll see how it goes.

10/18 ~ I’m still trying to wrap my brain around the numbers. I have eight turns on my current effort but the spreadsheet says I should have 10. It might be a simple matter of adjusting the figure for the depth of the back neck. Whatever I do, I must have (making mental note) the right number of additional turns on the front to get the proper tilt to the collar column. This effort has four more SRTs on the front which gives me eight more rows on the back. I’ve got to convert this concept to a formula that can be used to adjust the angle of the neck opening. Getting closer …

10/17 part 2 ~ Reknit went really well. The row count came out perfect front to back though I have six more stitches in the front than complete perfection. My brain is still working on this bit, how to do the math to make it come out perfectly.

I am currently taking the caston count and subtracting 12x2 (the drop, calculated in inches and converted to stitches), dividing that result by 2, subtracting the stitches for the center back, dividing the result by two again to get shoulder stitches. That’s working but not perfectly as evidenced by the extra six stitches. Oh! Shoot! I know what it is. I’m doing three increases on each front at the shoulderline as I work the drop short row turns. Hmm. I’ll have to think about how I want to handle that … not do the increases or include them in the math. Hmm.

10/17 ~ Test fit was surprisingly good. The back neck is perfect, the neck width is good but the front is a bit wider than I want and I still have a bit more angle at the shoulder front than I want. What isn’t apparent are the number of subtle twists I went through to get to this point.

This is the same collar used for the circular yoke attempt. I frogged back to the collar and, on the last row of the collar, marked the location of every short row turn with gord pins, back and front. These retained markers lets me frog and test without having to count and re-mark, letting me work without consulting a pattern or chart. This works so well I’ll do it the same way in future and never again worry about losing my place. Work smarter not harder at its best.

In the first iteration (10/16) I added the first short row turn for the drop on the front at 12 stitches from the shoulder marker. I worked five subsequent short row turns (total of six) in the second stitch before the previous turn and placed the raglan marker against the last drop SRT. This caused the front raglan stitches to be fewer (by four) than those at the back of the shoulder.

In the second iteration I moved the raglan marker down the front four stitches allowing the front raglan to match the back. This approved the appearance of balance with the back but “messied up” the appearance of the front.

Proposed change: I will move the first short row turn marker by four stitches to the 16th stitch. Once the aforementioned six turns are worked I’ll place the raglan marker against the last SRT and work everything else (moving and removing the remaining front markers to match the 4-stitch move) as before.

This will do four things. It will increase the drop at the shoulder, reduce the number of stitches remaining at the center front, allow for a better appearance of the front shoulder and allow me to reduce the number of short row turns done on the front by four to more closely match the level of the back.

10/16 ~ So far so good. Using the conti-rag crew neck set of increases and short row turns. This attempt (too soon to call it a sweater) has 20 back neck stitches per side. I’m a little concerned that I’ve got too many front neck stitches but I won’t know until I test fit in about ten rows.