Hey fellow knitters,
I spent half a day watching knitting-related YouTube videos the other day, and some of the videos I stumbled upon were of a knitter sharing their favorite construction for their sweaters. And while I watched it, it brought me to reflect on my own journey as a sweater knitter.
Let me put this out there. I’ve never thought of myself as an advanced knitter. I learned from my mistakes; my knitting journey is my own and in no way do I expect you to follow my learning or think I am better than any other crafter because of the knowledge I’ve gained.
But here’s what I learned from knitting 25+ sweaters in the past 10 years or so.
1- Selecting the right yarn is key.
One of my first sweater knit. I chose a 100% cotton yarn. What's wrong with it? Well, I didn't know that cotton stretches without bouncing back, unlike wool. So while the fit was perfect after the cast-off, an hour or so into wearing it had lost all its shape and was way too big. Lesson learned.
2- Fabric density is no joke.
You can have the right yarn and the perfect pattern for the sweater you have in mind, but if your needle size gives you the wrong fabric density, this sweater WILL be a failure.
So don’t be afraid to swatch, rip and start over again. The needle size in the pattern is nothing but a suggestion. Gauge issue? That's why we humans invented math.
3- Construction. ⚠️
That’s it.
How the garment is constructed will determine if you like or hate the garment and whether or not you will wear it. So choose carefully.
That being said, it’s great to try different styles at first to see what you like best.
Shop my construction Progress Keeper. This reminds me so much of my hometown, Montreal. IYKYK.
4- The pattern matters.
Unless you like going rogue like me or you are an advanced knitter, you better choose a pattern that has been tried and trued.
Ravelry is an amazing resource for patterns, and the platform makes it easy to self-publish your patterns, which is great! It means designers have to jump through fewer hoops to get published. On the other hand, it also means that you’ll find patterns there that are poorly written, not tech-edited, and not test-knitted. So choose which pattern you work with carefully.
If you’ve browsed through my portfolio of patterns(mine are copy-edited and tested), you’ll see that I have no sweater pattern designs for sale (yet). And there’s a reason for this. Grading patterns is HARD, especially for sweaters. Not only is the stitch gauge important, but the row gauge is also important. You can’t just tell someone to increase over 40 additional rows to achieve a larger garment; it’s not gonna work. The increases have to be spread evenly, but the numbers or rows worked must stay fairly similar. And the ratios to which you make the garment bigger or smaller isn’t the same for all areas of the sweater.
As I said, grading IS hard, and I'm not in a place in my life where I can dedicate hours of uninterrupted brainpower to this. Yet.
Check out my knitting patterns!
5- Construction 2.0
Once you’ve knit a few sweaters, you’ll begin to understand how the garments are constructed, and that’s how you’ll be able to figure out which construction you prefer and why. You’ll start borrowing techniques from one pattern and apply them to another. That’s the beauty of experience. Whether you’re swapping 2x2 ribbing for 1x1 twisted, adding more short rows to make the back longer, creating bust darts, or decreasing sleeves evenly or only towards the wrists for a balloon fit, you’ll know better what you want to do and what you like best once you’ve knit a handful of garments.
6 - Don’t be afraid to get out of the box.
As I watched the person's video about their favorite sweater construction, it occurred to me that I don’t have a favorite method of construction. And that isn’t because I like them all, but rather because nowadays, I borrow elements from many construction types to create my own. Raglan, drop shoulder, yoke, saddle, etc. I borrow from all types to create my own Frankenstein sweater. And I'm happy with the results.
For example, I prefer a lower crew neck, so I will increase stitches in the front, knitting the yoke back and forth, until I can join to make a lower front neck opening. I like this better than working short rows in the back neck. I also add short rows, but I do spread them evenly across the whole back, especially after the sleeve separation.
And while I love raglans, I find that a semi-saddle shoulder makes the garment sit much better on my shoulders. So I avoid increasing at the shoulders for the first inch or two of the sweater and make sure my shoulders have at least 2 inches of stitches at the cast-on, which also means I have to take into account this when I cast on stitches and make the collar a few stitches larger.
Additionally, I like the flare created with yoke increases, it works well to quickly add stitches to by bust, so only recently did I discover that I like incorporating a few rounds (2 or 3) of yoke increases in the front and back of my raglan/semi-saddle shoulder sweater.
Secret tip: I add more stitches to the front than the back to accommodate my "assets". 🧐
Adding yoke increases instead of going pure raglan also results in underarms that aren't as deep, since the sweater achieves its overall width faster than increasing if it's exclusively worked in a raglan-style, which results in fewer increasing rounds.
And lastly, if you’ve been hanging here a while you already know that I love adding stitches to my underarms to make them more roomy, creating more of a sports fit., even if that means decreasing an inch below in the sleeve; a technique I unashamedly stole from my own storebought outdoor sportswear.
So when someone asks me what’s my favorite sweater construction, I’m at a loss as to what I’m supposed to answer. A raglan/semi-saddle/pseudo-yoke construction?
So instead of trying to explain what that is, I’m gonna Uno you, and ask you: how do YOU prefer to knit your sweaters? Which sweater construction makes your heart sing? And what are the hard-earned lessons you’ve learned from knitting sweaters?