OMGosh! Does this rock or what?!?
I’ve completed the hem for Varsity. I’m really pleased. I chose to have the slanted stripe spike down through the seed stitch hem and I’m really pleased with the impact. It’s not too long and the visual impact is good! Yeah, yeah. Arm is sore from patting myself on the back.
The right sleeve (left in photo) will be Hobbii’s RB #35 to match the work above the stripe. Left (right in photo) will be Hobbii’s RB #08 to match the work below the stripe. That will reduce my yarn stock and drop most of the yarn scraps into my scrap bag. Win win! I didn’t have enough yarn to do a whole sweater in one color so this is my solution . . . celebrate both colors!
Next up . . . sleeves.
Beautiful! How did you get the stripes set up? If you don’t mind sharing your secret
OMGosh! I don’t mind at all. It’s really easy once I worked out all the bugs!
Once you get the garment to the point it’s being worked in the round, start working short rows on just one side of the garment. Knit across one sleeve (it can be left or right), k1, SRT. Knit back across the sleeve and k1, SRT. I’m using German Short Rows but any SRT should work. The sleeve you start with will be the sleeve opposite the diagonally striped sleeve. Each row after the first set of short row turns is knit (or purl if you turn your work) to the SRT, knit the SRT, k1, SRT.
At this point you’re working everything as normal. You’ll have to separate off the sleeve opposite the one you started with. Just do it as you normally would.
Once you reach the point where you have only one or two stitches between the SRTs, increase your needle size by 2 and knit around the entire body in the original yarn color. Doing this will help make your SRTs disappear. Upping the needle size will keep your stripe from puckering the horizontal body rows. Add your stripe yarn after one complete circuit has been knit in the original color. The stitch gauge for slanted rows is different than the stitch gauge for horizontal rows. If you work the stripe a bit and both fabrics don’t lay flat and smooth figure out whether you need to go up or down in needle size. For me two sizes work.
I chose to end my stripe when I separated off the second sleeve. On the Varsity sweater I actually ended it two rows short of the sleeve separation to accommodate the variegation in the yarn. If I’d continued knitting in the stripe yarn I would have lost the clean/finished stripes as the yarn would have started a new color.
Switch to the original yarn and knit one complete circuit in that yarn to prevent the SRTs from standing out. Switch back to the original needle size and yarn color and start doing short rows. Separate off the sleeve when appropriate.
At the bottom edge of the stripe, where it creates a Vee, do an increase every row. I alternate left and right leaning increases. This is the increase for front or back needed to get the right garment shape.
This whole process sounds way more complicated than it is. If you decide to try it I’d suggest you use a good mercerized cotton yarn for your first attempt so you have the freedom to frog to your heart’s content. For me this journey started with Wave knit in Tahki Cotton Classic. I learned so much.
Happy knitting!