Top Down Raglan Pullover

My first top-down pullover raglan, a crew neck. (Does anybody wear these any more?)



In my previous post I gave a brief description of how a top-down raglan is developed.

The picture above shows the beginning from the point of view of the knitter.

The picture above shows the beginning of the sweater as if you were looking at a sweater.

The yarn was a gift and I had plenty of it--good thing--because two of the three colors didn't match each other even though they are "no dye lot" yarns! Yeah, right. Because of this I had to separate the colors because the two non matching skeins would be quite obvious.

I will definitely make more of top down raglans. Besides being fun to do, there are a lot of new techniques to learn.

Why top downs over the traditional bottom up and seamed sweaters:

--they are seamless

--will know if are running short of yarn and can adjust

--can try it on to check for fit as you go along

--they are fun!

The basis of this brown sweater is The Complete Book of Raglan Sweaters from Leisure Arts, 1997

Top-down raglans 101

When I was writing about my top-down raglan cardigan a lot of non-knitters were confused.

http://gloriastitches.blogspot.com/2011/07/light-rose-sweater-re-do.html

So, to make the process as basic as possible, picture or sketch a cape.

Most likely you began at the top and went downward.

A bottom-up (traditional) seamed sweater has several parts: front, back, sleeves and all are seamed (as well as the shoulders.)

The top-down raglans can be seamless and the entire sweater is made at the same time. The cape is made just like the top-down raglan until the shoulders.

The neckline is begun and stitches are added to increase. On the sketch of the cape I indicate two seams (plus are two seams in the same locations on the back).

When you drew or pictured the cape, your increasing came at the side; on a sweater the increases are at the "seams", one stitch on each side of four "seams". That is how the sweater gets larger. Note that they are not seams in the sense that they are stitched together as in a traditional bottom-up sweater; rather, stitches are there. If you have a raglan-sleeved sweater you can check this.

This process is continued until the underarms when the sweater is divided: front and back are joined and worked as one; plus two sleeves.

Soon I will be posting about my recently completed top-down raglan pullover and will show how a top-down is begun.

Pinkness

To those of you who have an aversion to pink--and you know who you are--I apologize for what I have done to your brain.

To those of you who love, love, love, pink--and you know who you are--enjoy!

I said that this was the brightest pink on earth. It doesn't look all that bright in this photo, but trust me, it is bright.

It was a good price at an estate sale and enough for a sweater. Worn on a rainy day, it could just brighten someone's day.

Sweater in Fluffy yarn--old before it's new

This is one of the nearly completed sweaters I discovered in a closet a few months ago. All that was left to do was the bottom half of the sleeves.

I bought this yarn before some of you were born! I had knitted it in an all over rib but made the stitches too loose so it was too large.

I undid it and later made it into a different pattern but similar to the one in the photo. I undid that one because I didn't like the way it was turning out. Thus, this version.

I began it about ten years ago, which explains the style. I didn't want to start over , once again, as this acrylic mohair wannabe is not easy to take apart. It is Fluffy by Unger and was manufactured for years and years.

It is supposed to have a lot of ease but not 47" worth! Those drop shoulders shouldn't be that wide either. Guess I didn't measure! The V-neck should be a lot smaller.

Old style or not I love this very soft yarn and I love red. I knitted a garter stitch strip to sew in the V to make it somewhat smaller and to give it more stability and since I wasn't certain how to do a V decrease, I just overlapped one edge over the other.

If the 80's really are coming back, then I am going to be in style.

Most people like to complete a project which is the latest style. I am happy just completing a project, especially one which was started so many years ago.

Crocheting in 1917

These items are not something that I plan to crochet in the near future, but they were the style in 1917.

I obtained this booklet for 10 cents, the price it was in 1917. It is #9 of 18. Other booklets contain scarves, pillows, corset covers, knitted and crocheted sweaters for the entire family, aprons, etc.

The directions for the items on the cover and on the pages above are included, but not for

all of the items in the booklet. Some of the directions for the caps are in issue #10. We do encounter articles where they continue it in the next issue. So this practice is nothing new--they used it in 1917!

The print is extremely small, reminding me of the "small print" at the bottom of pages. It is quite difficult to follow.

Information which is not provided: thread size, hook size, gauge, finished size.

This certainly makes me appreciate what we have now even more.

Anonymous, still can't comment?

Since May, "anonymous" has been doing a lot of commenting. It was something Blogger was supposed to fix, in May, they said. Umm, not yet done. Having read the pages of what we can do--and finally semi-understanding it---I can offer some advice.





My offering computer advice is a joke in itself, so, if you prefer, you can go to the pages I read and decifer it for yourself. You will need to click on all the links provided, and each one offers more links.





http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=598fff8a262de49b&hl=en





Not having figured out the difference between Blogger and Blogspot, I will problaby interchange them incorrectly, but the info itself will work.





You start out with your Dashboard and all looks good, including your e-mail address at the upper right. You click on the latest entry from someone you are following, read it and want to comment. For some blogs you will see your name as one of the options, so you click on that, your comment is published and all is well. However, for most blogs, your name does not appear; instead, there are various options. Clicking on Google Account doesn't give the desired effect.





Look at the upper right of that person's blog. If your e-mail address is there, then you shouldn't have a problem, but if it says Create Blog, then something needs to be done.





There are three options, two of which you can do yourself; the third needs to be done by the blogger.

1) You can go to the top right of someone's blog and click on Sign In (next to Create Blog). This takes you to your Dashboard (or you can go there directly) and you click on Sign Out at upper right which will take you to the Sign In page. You think you're signed in--and you are--but not fully. Uncheck Keep Me Signed In.

2) You can "Allow Third Party Cookies" on your computer. (I'm somewhat iffy on doing this).

So, why and how did all of this "anonymous" posting come to be?

In June, 2008, Blogger started an Embedded Comment form. The people cheered. I found Blogger's explanation of what this is.

It must be the default for commenting because those whose blogs get "anonymous" comments have this type.

How to tell: The box for typing the comment will be under the previous comments and on the left when you are on the comments page.

Those who have other set-ups will have the comments box on the right (and your name will show as an option.)

I just changed mine to this because people were saying that they still couldn't comment as other than anonymous.

I sometimes pass on commenting to a blog cause I'm tired of being Anonymous!

What is happening is that Blogger is no longer able to authenticate because of the code changes they made in May, 2011. There was supposed to be a fix but it never came.

Thus, if you want people to be able to comment on your blog who don't allow third party cookies and who don't want to have to sign in each time, change the way your comments are set up.

Go to Settings, then Comments. Next to Comment Form Placement if you have "Embedded Below Post" selected, change it and save changes. I had clicked on Pop-Up Window but it jumped to Full Page. I have the most basic Blogger set-up so tht could be why.

For more info: http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2011/01/technical-sophistication-of-your-blogs.html

Please feel free to mention it if you find any different information.

Lt Rose Top-Down Sweater--Reprise

This is a repeat of the entry which I accidently deleted last week. I discovered that you cannot delete a photo without deleting the blog entry, or at least I couldn't. I am putting it here again in case I need to refer back to it and there will actually be a post here. The comments will be included but I'll have to put them in myself.

Friday, August 5, 2011

It's done. I had to un-do about a total of 1/4 of it, either because there was a stitch problem or I didn't like the way it looked. I really didn't mind as this was my first knitted top-down raglan (crocheted ones are so much easier).

I see that I went too deep with the raglan, thus making the sleeves too large above the elbow.

This sweater was a good choice as the neckline rib is done at the beginning. I can use the measurements of this sweater as reference for future sweaters.

http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/70111.html?r=1

Edited to add: you may have to be a member of Lionbrand to view this pattern. If you cannot see it, trust me, except for the sleeves and the color of it, mine looks exactly like it. LOL

Open-Shell Afghan

I did manage to accidently delete my previous post and will re-post it later.

A few at Ravelry have commented on my afghan so am posting it here so the stitch pattern can be seen better. For a larger view, click on the photo.

I made it for my inlaws a few years ago. It is from McCalls Crochet, Book 4, 1970.

November 3, 2012--editing to add photo of the magazine cover.

Light Rose Sweater Re-do

This is the Light Rose sweater re-do so far. There were a few things which delayed my progress. I tried the neck ribbing until I felt it looked like the pattern photo. I undid a few rows because I found an extra yo (eyelet) a few rows down. Do you have any idea how much time is involved in taking out over 1,000 stitches? Answer: longer than it takes to knit them. This first pic shows the yoke part of a top-down raglan cardigan.

This is after separating the sleeves from the body. I don't care to seam pieces but I dislike using dpns (double pointed needles) more, so the sleeves need to be done first if not doing seamless top-down raglans.

I like to do both sleeves at the same time which creates quite a mess of yarn until a few inches are knitted. It was a bit confusing when I began the sleeves but got easier. From photo left to photo right: the right front, right sleeve, back ("circle" in center), left sleeve, and left front.

The final pic makes it easier to see how a top-down sweater develops.

I don't have a pic but I put the sleeves on holders and have joined the fronts and back, to be knit as one piece, and will knit a few inches, then try on the sweater to determine the fit and length I want for the sleeves and the sweater.

Knowing When to Fold 'em

The Light Rose sweater is no more. I was unraveling it when I got all of these strands of yarn and couldn't figure out why. I checked the sketch and yup, was undoing it in the direction it had been done. Except I wasn't. After I turned the sketch around a few times, I realized that I was trying to undo it in the opposite way that I should have been. Doh.

Yes, it was made across, cuff to cuff. I was thinking the right front was the last part knitted. Doh. Had I continued and begun to unravel it from the right cuff up--the correct way--I would have undone more than 3/4 of the sweater.

It was doomed from the start. My yarn wasn't quite to gauge so I used larger sized needles. Then I discovered that I knitted with a looser tension when working on the part with the circular needles. I wound up using four different sized needles. At the same time I was trying to knit to two sizes, one for where I was narrower and one for where I wasn't.

There is no sense of giving up, frustration, or similar. It's just that I have a lot of sweaters in my queue, including some UFOs, and limited time in which to do those and all my other crafts projects. There is only so much time left in which to do these things (getting old you know.)

You gotta know when to hold 'em; know when to fold 'em. It was time to fold 'em.

Measure, measure, measure

http://www.redheart.com/free-patterns/multi-directional-striped-cardigan

For those of you asking to see the cardigan I'm doing in Light Rose--and you know who you are--there will be a wait. Why? Because I didn't heed my own advice of measure, measure, measure.

I was knitting the front bands when I realized that the two upper front portions weren't the same length! How in the world did that happen? This sweater is knitted from the left cuff over to the right cuff (basically), so the upper right front is the last knitted for that portion. Usually I do compare and don't know why I didn't this time. For some reason I was knitting more loosely than I normally do; usually, I tend to knit more tightly as I progress.

There might have been a way to knit the band and ease in the right side but it probably would be obvious, plus I would know that it was not right.

The bottom portion is done by "picking up stitches" and knitting them to the upper portion. For you non-knitters that means adding stitches to already worked stitches rather than knitting a section separately and seaming the two together. Well, guess what? All these years of knitting and I had never done that before. I thought I was following the sketches correctly, but, nope, I wasn't and the results weren't too good.

So, with the two front lengths not being even and the not-so-good job of picking up stitches, I undid the bottom portion (it was also the only way to undo the upper portion). Sigh. And I was so close to being finished with only the front bands and collar to do.


I love the blue they used for that sweater, but mine is a solid Light Rose and not as pretty.

Now regarding the other sweater (in chocolate, wheat, and soft taupe, mentioned in my previous entry): had to undo what I had knitted on that one. The directions sounded so simple and I had done top-down raglans before. Yes, but only cardigans, not pullovers. I will be starting that one over.

I probably have no business knitting as I'm not very good at it. (I'm better at crocheting, but I like the look of a knitted sweater over a crocheted one)---plus, I really enjoy knitting.

Knitting Sweaters

Knowing that I need to thin out my yarn stash, I've been doing some knitting. I'm more of a crocheter so my knitting won't win any awards. A lot of my stash is just one or two of the same yarns, but I have some yarns which are enough for sweaters.

I'm currently working on a sweater--and even remembered to take progress pics--with yarn I bought at a yard sale. It is Caron Gold Sayelle in Light Rose.

It is almost summer, so why am I making sweaters? Because 1) I need to use some of this collection of yarn, 2) they will be ready for the cooler weather when it comes (actually it's been on the cool side for this time of year), and, most importantly 3) because I am in the mood to knit sweaters. This mood doesn't come that often and I need to take advantage of it.

The Caron yarn in the pic was a gift for XMas 2009 and I forgot I had it. It is Simply Soft, and it is. The person who gave it to me is not a knitter so didn't know how much to get. Well, she got plenty: 2 skeins each of 3 colors and each skein is 5 oz. of knitted worsted weight.

It would have been so much easier to find a pattern if there was a "main color" as opposed to an equal amount of each color. I could just find a pattern I like and work the colors, estimating where I would run short of a particular color, but this may not be fail proof.

I decided to do a top down raglan pullover. This way I won't have to worry about a color shortage: if I'm getting close to the end, I could just make the sweater and/or the sleeves shorter.

That's the plan anyway.

Able to Comment Again

Hopefully, I have it figured out. I got the information, not from Google---and shame on them---but from doing a search and reading blogs of those who also have had problems commenting this week and/or have temporarily lost their Followers.

If you are signed in every blog you go to should show your e-mail address at the upper right, but this week it has shown Create a Blog and Sign In. When I went to comment, instead of showing my name, it said to select a profile. When doing that, a page came up asking me to Sign In. I quit there but I guess some got caught in the loop of this.

Bloggers suggestions were to Sign In and uncheck the Keep me Signed in box (not certain of the exact wording). I heard some had trouble signing in in the first place, but since I was already signed in, this second signing in should not sign me out when I left the site. Confused yet? It did work because when I went to comment on a blog my name did show up.

It's crazy when trying to comment on my own blog my name came up as Anonymous, but, fingers crossed, hoped I have solved the problem.

A Little Update

First of all, I am still alive--and kicking, although not quite as high as I used to.

I've been doing a bit of sewing. I finished two UFOs and did some minor stitching so the garments could go in my bedroom closet and out of the sewing room closet. There isn't anything exciting enough to take pics of, but just wanted to mention that there is some progress.

Right now I am knitting and crocheting some potholders and dishcloths as I do need those.

Muffin Top Added to Oxford Dictionary

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-03-24/entertainment/ct-talk-small-talk-0325-20110324_1_muffin-oxford-english-dictionary-symbol OMG--"Muffin Top" has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. LOL No need to tell women what "muffin top" means. Edited to add: It looks like a clickable link, as did the other pages I tried. However, it doesn't go to any page. Please let me know if you are able to get to that page by just clicking. I could copy and paste it and it would go, but not by clicking. Any advice would be appreciated. Edited to add: thank you, Maggie, for the correction. It works now.

Earthquakes and Tsunamis

It was supposed to be the Tonight Show, but instead it was videos of the earthquake and aftershocks in Japan. They are saying it was 8.9. That is huge. Because the earthquake was underwater, it really stirred up the water, so much so that there are tsunami warnings all around the Pacific rim. Hawaii should be hit in just a few short hours. Hopefully, it won't be the six feet that they are predicting.

A few minutes ago they announced that the warning (which means imminent as opposed to a watch) has been extended to the Pacific coast areas of California and Oregon. That's just a little too close for my tastes.

I've been in an earthquake but don't remember being included in a tsunami warning.

There have been just too many earthquakes recently-- New Zealand, a few smaller ones in Japan, then China a few days ago, and now Japan.

When You Need a Good Laugh, updated

This is another what I call filler post. It's what newspapers do when they have a little space left. It's what I do when I can't think of a topic or should be writing one. (Updating the red dotted outfit *cough, cough*).



In my November 10 entry I listed two sites to read when you wanted a good laugh. Well, the authors took down the WhatNottoKnit site. Thanks to Jilly Be (http://jillybejoyful.blogspot.com ) we have another one to check out. The blog is not current, but the posts, as well as the comments, are entertaining. It is http://youknitwhat.blogspot.com

Seminole Patchwork Vest

I wore this vest Saturday and thought I show post about another type of craft which I do. I don't do patchwork quilting, but do like Seminole patchwork. This was made in '97, but I did see the pattern still available a few years ago, so it still may be.

The smallest pieces are 1/4 " by 3/4" finished. I worked with something that small? Yes, I did and I loved it. It is 100% cotton. I lined it with the same eggshell which I used in the pieces.

I put on these purchased pants for the photo, and I see that that was a bad idea, as the fit is, well, bad.

The front of the vest overlaps the back piece. A layer of batting is in between and to determine how I wanted the placement of the Seminole bands, I put the batting on a board, and laid the bands on the batting.

This is view b, with a variation they offered although it is not shown on the envelope.

Editing to add:

Someone just asked me what a vest like this would cost. I really don't know, but I read that the Seminole Indians, when making clolthing for themselves put in a lot of bands of designs separated by solid colors. However, when making clothing for the tourists would charge by the number of bands, then put in a few narrow solid bands witihin an item. The entire garment would not be pieced, (as my vest is). A woman wrote that she paid, in 1948, $40 for a black skirt with one band and only a few narrow strips!