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crocheting neckline edges
I’m a knitter, not a crocheter, I just never did learn! however, there are times in my knitting life where working with a crochet hook can really come in handy. Of course, the provisional cast-on comes straight to mind, but aside from that, I definitely enjoy crocheting edges when I’m looking for something really clean and simple. this video tutorial is geared towards knitters who are unfamiliar with crochet terminology (including myself!) and demonstrates the edging featured in both pink fluff pattern necklines. now, both of these patterns also include an alternate i-cord edging which does give a similar look so if you are just not into crochet hooks, period, or this method isn’t going well for you, by all means use that I-cord instead! for those that do know their crochet, i’ve been told (by an expert) that what I’m working on this neckline is a slip 1, chain 1, repeated around the entire neckline. so if those terms make sense to you, you probably don’t need this tutorial! if you do find this tutorial useful, there’s a donation button below!
the video tutorial includes all the audio you could want, most likely more repetitiveness than you need and even some written instructions that pos up on your screen from time to time, but I thought i’d really go deep in this blog post and explain in more depths each step of this process. if you’d rather jump straight into the video, the instruction itself begins at 1:45—feel free to skip my intro!
the big picture
the two main steps
there are two components of this neckline edging. the first is working into a stitch and the second part is chaining a stitch right afterward. both components are equally important. when you work into the stitch (whether it’s live from the provisional cast-on, or a stitch that you’d normally be picking up to knit), you’re joining your edging to your piece. when you chain a stitch, you’re adding a new stitch to create some elasticity so that the neckline will fit over your head. if you forget a chain a handful of times on your entire neckline, you probably won’t notice a difference, but if you’re not regularly working that second step, you’re gonna end up with a too-tight edging, as if you were just working a single crochet all the way around. also, do not, do not, do NOT pull each loop that you create tightly. You want to be creating loops that are stable and as consistent as possible, but you want them to be on the looser side—again, for elasticity. if you find that you are creating your loops too snugly, you can consider chaining a second stitch to help make up for it, but you’re better off if you can convince you fingers to not pull those loops too tight! another one of the nice things about this edging in general is that you’re always going to be wrapping your yarn around the crochet hook in the same way. you’re not ever going to be reversing the way you wrap, so once you’ve gotten the wrapping process down, it’ll just be on repeat.
workin’ it
i’m going to follow the instruction order as to how it’s shown in the video, so the first portion deals with live stitches on knitting needles and then we go to working into stitches that are on the edge of your garment and not on your needles. in the pink fluff patterns, you’ll be working with both types of stitches, but if you want to use this edging on another sweater (or another part of the garment other than the neckline) it is 100% fine to be working all the way around on live stitches or all the way around the edge of the garment without knitting needles at all. they do not need to be combined, that just happens to be the way I constructed these two sweaters.
section 1: working stitches on live needles
the nice part about using your crochet hook in combination with your knitting needles is that you’re really just replacing your right hand needle with a crochet hook instead. in fact, you could likely perform this edging with knitting needles only, but I think having the hook to grab the yarn really helps to facilitate and expedite the process, so that’s why i’m demonstrating it In this particular way. the first set of stitches you’re working with in pink fluff are those that were provisionally cast-on, so before you begin working the steps below, you should have removed that cast-on and placed your set of live stitches on working needles. go ahead and set those down as you’ll need to prepare your crochet hook with working yarn before continuing as follows: with the yarn you’ll be using for your edging, make a slip knot and place it onto your crochet hook. snug it up, but don’t make it super tight (see above!) hold your hook in your right hand and pick up your knitting needles with your left hand, ready to work the right side of those live stitches. here we go!
insert the crochet hook into the first live stitch as if to knit, creating an X just as you would if you were using two knitting needles. your crochet hook will be situated behind your left hand needle, angled to the left, and your left hand knitting needle will be angled to the right.
making sure not to use the tail from your slip knot, wrap the working yarn behind the hook, from right to left, and then over the top of the hook to create a counter clockwise loop—this is actually a yarnover on your crochet hook. i’m going to say this again, keep the loop on the looser side. you’ll now have two loops on your crochet hook: one at the bottom/right (closest to the handle) and then a second newly created loop sitting towards the hook end, above your left hand knitting needle.
using the hook to grab hold of your newly created loop while keeping just enough tension on the working yarn so that it does not fall off your hook, pull it through the stitch on your needle. you will still have two loops on your crochet hook and remember, you don’t want them to be too tight.
if you didn’t automatically do this in the previous step, slide the stitch from your left hand needle off of it, as it has now been worked. you’ve still got two loops on your crochet hook but now you don’t have a knitting needle in between them.
the next step can be done in two different ways, either by using the hook or your left hand needle, but the result will be the same. i’m writing the process out separately below, so only work it in the way that is most comfortable for you. my recommendation is to keep trying option 1 and only resort to option 2 if you really can’t get it. the more comfortable you become with your hook, the easier the entire process will be.
option 1: use the hook to grab your newly created top loop and draw it through the bottom loop
option 2: use your left hand needle to grab the bottom loop and slip it over top of the newly created loop
you are now down to having only one loop on your hook and you’ve completed the first component of this process! now we will move into the second, adding the chain stitch so that you’ll have enough of an edging to fit over your head.
section 2: chaining after working every. single. stitch.
now for the even easier part! working a single chain stitch. if you’ve ever worked a provisional cast-on with a crochet hook, you probably already know how to chain a stitch because typically you chain a few stitches, then start your cast-on—which Is essentially chaining with a knitting needle In the middle of the chain—then end your cast-on by chaining additional stitches once you have the correct number of stitches on your needles. You can even chain all of the stitches in your provisional cast-on and then insert your needle into each loop afterwards. i’ll still be very descriptive here and write this for anyone who has never worked a crochet chain. at this point in our process, we have worked steps 1-5 from above and are back down to having only a single loop on our crochet hook. I’ll refer to this loop as the bottom loop as I did above. and yes, these steps below are going to sound familiar.
work as for step 2 in section 1: wrap the working yarn behind the hook, from right to left, and then over the top of the hook to create a yarnover on your crochet hook. once again, you’ve got two loops.
work as for step 5 in section 1: once again you can feel free to use your knitting needle to help, but If you get the hang of using your hook it’ll be more efficient if you can use it alone to chain your stitch. use the hook to grab your newly created top loop and draw it through the bottom loop. if you’re not confident enough with your hook yet, refer to option 2. you are now back to a single loop on your needle and…
ta da! you’ve chained a stitch!
section 3: repeat, repeat, repeat
for the entire section of provisionally cast-on stitches, you’ll be working {steps 1-5, step 2, step 5} all the way until all of your live stitches are worked. just don’t forget that chain. if you have to pause mid-process, or you just forget whether you’ve chained or not, take a look at your work. if you’ve completed the chain, you’ll see an unattached loop/stitch sitting on “top” of the loop that’s connected to your neckline edge. whereas if you’ve not yet chained, the last loop you see will be incorporated into the actual neckline edge. once you’ve worked all of your live stitches, it’s time to move onto the remainder of the edging.
section 4: working stitches along your edging
this process is almost the same as working with live stitches, only it Is a bit easier because you don’t have a knitting needle involved, therefore you don’t need to remember to slide the stitch you just worked off your needle (step 4 from the very first section). when you get to this section of edging in both pink fluff patterns, you will already have a loop on your crochet hook because you’ll have just completed working each stitch involved in the provisional cast-on, so you don’t need to create a slip knot. however if you are using this edging for something else where all your stitches were cast-on in standard fashion, or have been bound off, you will need a loop on the hook to begin, so only if you do not already have a loop on your crochet hook, create a slip knot, place it on your hook, snug it up, but not too tightly, just as I described in the set-up for working from live sts. bottom line, you will always need a single loop on your crochet hook prior to working into a stitch whether it is live or on an existing edge.
before beginning your work, examine your edging to determine a consistent location into which you’ll be inserting your crochet hook. If you are used to picking up stitches, the point of insertion for the crochet hook is exactly the same as where you would be inserting your right hand needle if you were to pick up and knit that stitch instead. In the video, my demonstration shows a bound off edge so it’s easy to see the loops into which I am working. I recommend using only one of those loops and it is the one that is closest to you when you’re looking at your work. It will be easy to see this loop along your front cable cast-on edge as well, but the diagonals are a little trickier to see. the most important thing is not necessarily where you insert your hook but that you maintain consistency (same goes for picking up and knitting!). I recommend using either the second or third leg along vertical or diagonal edges: Each knit stitch consists of two legs, so when I say the second leg, I am referring to the interior leg of the first stitch (from the edge of your work), where the third leg is referring to the exterior leg of the second stitch. once you’ve taken a good look at your fabric and have a plan of insertion, you’re ready to roll. you should have a single loop on your crochet hook and know where it’s going to go.
insert crochet hook into the leg of your chosen stitch or the loop of your cast-on edge as if you were going to pick up and knit a stitch.
work as for step 2 in section 1: but i’ll write it out again for you, wrap the working yarn behind the hook, from right to left, and then over the top of the hook to create a counter clockwise loop. your pre-existing loop is at the bottom/right (closest to the handle) of the hook and your second newly created loop is sitting towards the hook end with the leg/loop of your project edge in between the two loops on your hook.
work as for step 3 in section 1: are you starting to see that even though your stitches are coming from different places, they are all being worked in virtually the same way? the only difference between step 3 in section 1 here is that you won’t have the knitting needle in between: using the hook to grab hold of your newly created loop, pull it through the stitch into which your hook is inserted. your two loops on your crochet hook are now situated on “top” of your project fabric.
work as for step 5 in section 1: since we don’t have to slide a stitch off a needle, you’ll go straight to step 5. once again, you can either pick up a knitting needle to help you pull the bottom loop over the top loop, or you can use your crochet hook to pull the top loop through the bottom loop. at this point, since you no longer have knitting needles in hand, it will be much more efficient to use only the crochet hook.
And that’s how you work into your fabric edging. It’s hardly different from working into live stitches at all.
section 5: it’s time to chain again
this time I’m not going to rewrite it, but after going through steps 1-4 in section 4, you will work the steps from section 2, exactly the same as you did after each stitch in section 1.
section 6: repeat, repeat, repeat
yup, every time you insert your hook into an edging leg/loop, you’ll work the entirety of sections 4 & 5. continue until you get all the way around to where you began with your live stitches along the provisionally cast on edge and then, move on to finishing up.
finishingd
nothing fancy is happening here! once you’ve worked each stitch (and the chain that follows) you’ll be back to where it all began. break your yarn with a 6”/15 cm or so tail. Go ahead and stretch your final loop on the crochet hook large enough that it’s easy to thread your tail through and pull it snugly to secure. with a tapestry needle, use your tail to connect the end of your edging to the beginning, doing your best to mimic the way the strands look in the rest of the edging.
that’s all folks!
I hope that this tutorial gives you a great edging option! although I’ve written it in the order that follows the instructions in ruffle fluff & lacey fluff, remember that it doesn’t matter whether you’re working from live stitches or from existing edges. this is a beautifully neat & clean way to finish off a project, especially when you don’t want to detract from other detailing that deserves to shine. if you’ve enjoyed this content and found it useful, there’s a donation button below!
the best of inset side pockets
who doesn’t love great pockets?
whether they are in your pants, skirt, dress or sweater, in my opinion pockets are most welcome! last year, when I designed warmth, I played around with side pockets and developed a construction method that provides exceptionally sturdy pockets and now I’ve used them again in my new design, harriet cardigan. in your pattern you’ll have instructions to create linings that are worked with short rows on each front of your sweater and also on each side of the back. this provides 2 layers that are then seamlessly attached at the bottom to your sweater! In this tutorial. I’ll give a little overview of the construction and conclude with a video demonstrating the join. it’s not difficult, just a bit finicky, so be patient with yourself when you get to the joining row. in your patterns, you won’t need any of the set-up information provided here, as it’ll be included and already worked out for you. but, if you’re trying to add pockets to an existing sweater I hope this general overview will get you going! this overview is written for top down sweaters. if you’ve got either harriet or warmth already, you can skip down to step 4 of this post.
step 1: pocket placement
For great side pockets, you want the location of the opening to be located a couple of inches towards the front of the center side of your sweater. depending on how wide you want your pockets to be, you’ll have to play around with the exact placement but generally you need at least an inch or two in order to place your hands comfortably in the pockets. If you have an existing sweater with a side opening that you like, it’s a great idea to lay it out flat and actually measure the distance from center side to opening and use that to help you determine where you will place your pocket. You’ll use your stitch gauge to determine how many stitches this translates to and this will be where you separate your fronts & back + extra stitches to create your pocket opening.
for the pocket height, again this will depend on both gauge and personal preference. how tall will your pocket be? what distance do you want the top of it to be from the bottom of your sweater and the underarm? once you plan these numbers out in inches/cm you’ll use your row gauge to determine exactly where you will begin working your short rows either from the top of your sweater or from the separation of sleeves from body.
additionally, you’ll need to plan where you’d like your pocket to close in the front, which will be on the wrong side of your sweater. do you want it to go all the way to the buttonband or center front? or do you want to work a few stitches first? it’s all about how wide you want your pocket to be. we will come back to this number at the end, but it’ll be relevant for the width of your linings and when you begin your joining process. once you decide how wide your pocket will be, once again, use your gauge to determine the total number of stitches that will be included on the front of your sweater when you join your linings to your sweater front.
at the end of this step you should have determined the locations of the top and bottom of your pocket opening, as well as the total number of stitches that will be the pocket width.
step 2: calculate lining stitches
I know, you just determined the number of stitches in the width of your sweater front so shouldn’t this number match up? well, it depends on the stitch patterns used in your sweater and lining. in both of my patterns, i’ve chosen to use a linen stitch for my linings which does not share the same gauge in stitches or rows per inch/cm with the stockinette that is featured on the front of both of these garments. you may choose to simply work stockinette linings and therefore not need to do any additional math here. or perhaps you are working with a cabled fabric that equates to a similar gauge as your lining stitch. but, if your lining will be in a separate stitch pattern than your sweater garment, you’ll need to determine the equivalent number of stitches to cover the width you desire in your lining. Don’t worry if you need to increase or decrease stitches, this can all be done in a single row prior to joining your linings with your sweater.
row gauge matters here too. as I mentioned, I use linen stitch for a nice snug fabric with great hold. in both warmth & harriet, this translated to needing more rows in the pocket linings than in the sweater worked alongside it. if you’re starting to be flustered by the math, try out one of my patterns so you can see this pocket in action! but if you’re still with me, if you need more rows in your pocket linings, you’ll simply work what I call “sub short rows” over the linings only every few rows to accommodate those extra rows needed. if you don’t work these extra rows, you’ll find that your lining will pucker your sweater on the front because it won’t be the same height as your opening. to work the sub short rows, simply use a w&t (or your preferred style of short row method) where your lining meets your sweater to work in those extra rows only over the lining section.
use the stitch gauge of your pocket lining width to calculate the total number of lining stitches you’ll need to cast on for your lining. then, determine the difference between your sweater front pocket stitches and your lining stitches and decrease this number of stitches evenly during the final row of your lining.
step 3: create those pocket linings
once you’ve made your calculations, this is the easy part! once you get to the location of the top of your pocket, you’ll separate your sweater into three separate pieces as I mentioned above. each front-which totals the stitches in that will be worked over your pocket plus any extra stitches at the center front of your garment and your back will be the total number of back stitches plus the stitches between center underarm and the pocket opening.
work each section separately. for the fronts, you’ll work to the opening, cast on the total number of lining stitches, work back and forth (including those sub short rows if/when needed) until you get to your total pocket depth. for the back, you’re going to cast on the same number of stitches on both sides of the back panel and do the same work. don’t forget that if your linings are a different total number of stitches than your pocket width, you’ll make that decrease/increase adjustment during the final row of your lining work, working the shaping only over the lining section, not your front or back. on additional tip, in my patterns I work the final stitch before the lining through the back loop to help things look nice and clean. you could probably also do this with the first stitch in the lining section instead (something I might try in the future!)
step 4: join them up
the video tutorial below will show you exactly how to work the join for these amazing, sturdy layers you’ve created. all you’ll be doing is working k3tog’s across both layers of the pocket linings and the front stitches of your sweater that are part of your pocket. the video below shows this process along with more step-by-step written instructions as it goes along.
step 5: finishing
your pocket linings are now seamlessly joined to the bottom of your sweater. hooray! now all that’s left to do is whipstitch your linings closed while simultaneously sewing them to the wrong side of your sweater. don’t go crazy in this step. you don’t need to work your whipstitch stitch-for-stitch, it’s ok for it to be a bit looser than your stitches themselves. be careful not to let your yarn go through to the right side of your sweater. as a final, optional step, in harriet I added cute little X’s at the top corner of each pocket in a contrasting color.
so there you go
are these not just the best? you’ll be absolutely amazed at just how much you can actually put into your pockets (try your phone!) and they won’t sink down and show underneath your hem. I love function, especially when I can make it pretty, too.
I haven’t yet experimented with a single layered lining but theoretically, it should work similarly, just won’t hold quite the same level of sturdiness. I will definitely be trying this on a lighter garment. for single linings, you’ll want to only work the linings next to the back, and skip the linings that are attached to the front. the join will be similar, but it will be with k2tog’s instead of k3tog’s.
Measuring your Body for the Best-Fitting Knits
I love teaching my Tailoring Workshop because it enables knitters to make better choices about what size they should knit but more importantly, where and how they should modify garments for a better fit! Before you can learn to modify a garment, it’s essential that you have accurate body measurements. Use this video series to record your own body measurements so that you always have them on hand when choosing a size, and when looking at a schematic to see how it compares to you and your beautiful self! Embrace your body—it’s the only one you’ve got and being accurate when you take these measurements will absolutely reflect in your projects going forward.
Before you Begin
Grab a sheet of paper so that you can record each measurements. Go ahead and make it a “pretty” sheet, because you’ll want to save these measurements for reference each time you’re about to start working a new project.
For the most accurate measurements, dress as follows: wear the style of undergarments that you’d typically wear for your sweater with a thin/lightweight top or tank and fitted, thin pants if possible for the hip measuring section.
Know what “ease” means: I won’t go into much detail about ease in this post because it’s very full already but I do want you to know what it is. Ease is the difference between your actual body measurement and the measurement of the garment itself in any given area. Ease applies to circumference measurements only. Positive ease means that the garment is larger than your body and negative ease means it’s smaller. No ease means that the garment is meant to match your actual measurements. Actual body measurements are what we are taking here. Ease is something that is considered when choosing your size and your pattern should indicate suggested ease.
You don’t need a partner to take these measurements, I’ll show you how to take them all by yourself but if you do have someone around to help, it certainly doesn’t hurt! So here we go, let’s roll!
Armhole & Yoke Depth
You may notice that I didn’t mention Yoke Depth in this video, and that’s because Yoke Depth in a pattern is based on Armhole Depth. There’s not a separate measurement responsible. In general, both depths are calculated using the total number of rows in the top section of your sweater divided by the pattern’s row gauge. For a top-down sweater, this is the length before sleeve separation; for a bottom-up sweater, it’s the length worked after joining body and sleeves. If your row gauge is significantly different than the pattern’s row gauge, you may end up with a different depth in this section. Usually, a small row gauge difference won’t affect your Yoke or Armhole Depth enough to be a bother. It’s easier to “fix” shorter rows (more rows per inches than the pattern gauge), because you can knit for extra length at the bottom of the Yoke or Armhole section. For longer rows, there’s not much you can do to shorten your depth unless you are very comfortable with pattern math and know how to adjust the spacing of your increasing or decreasing over this section. You might notice Yoke Depth measurements being slightly shorter than Armhole Depths for a similar fit—this is because the actual spacing created in a raglan or circular yoke design is on the diagonal, which results in a slightly longer line. If you don’t remember the Pythagorean Theorem (the explanation for the difference in the diagonal) that’s totally ok, just know that it’s normal to see a Yoke Depth in a raglan or circular construction that’s closer to your actual Armhole Depth versus a set-in sleeve or drop shoulder design.
Back Neck-to-Cuff & Wrist Measurements
You won’t find the Back Neck-to Cuff measurement reported on a schematic, because most knitters aren’t familiar with it. However, a good designer will have used this set of standard measurements to determine the underarm sleeve length. In this post, I’ve not shown you how to take your underarm sleeve length measurement and that’s because I highly recommend that you never compare underarm sleeve length directly. Think of a sweater as a pile of puzzle pieces that all fit together. Your desired sleeve length will be based on the amount of ease you’ve chosen to knit along with the length or width of the sweater’s Back Neck, Shoulder + Yoke or Armhole Depth. But don’t worry! I’ve got a tutorial that I recommend you utilize before beginning any long sleeve sweater that will allow you to directly compare Back Neck-to-Cuff in the pattern to your own measurement. Click the button below and use this tutorial if you’re interested in calculating your perfect sleeve length while taking into account all the puzzle pieces I mentioned!
I’ve also included Wrist Circumference in the above video because you’ll want to measure your wrist at the same location where you’ve chosen your sleeve to end. Take both of these measurements as many times as needed to have the details that will allow you to modify your sleeve length or wrist circumference for 3/4, bracelet, long or extra long sleeve length. Sleeve length is one of the most common modifications knitters need to make, and that’s because Bust/Chest measurements have nothing to do with our height and therefore, very little relation to sleeve length, either. The easiest place to modify your sleeve length is at the very top, before shaping begins. You can make this section shorter or longer to suit your modification. If you need significant length modification, you’ll have better results by adjusting the spacing of your sleeve shaping rounds (closer together for shorter sleeves and further apart for longer ones) but that’s a lesson for the Tailoring Workshop!
Upper Bust(or upper chest)
Is this the first time you’re hearing that you should take your Upper Bust/Upper Chest measurement? If so, you’re not alone. Most of the time, it’s better (and easier) to choose a size based on the fullest part of your bust. However, I recommend using your Upper Bust to choose a size in the following situations:
Tailored, set-in sleeve designs: you’ll likely have better fitting shoulders if you use this upper measurement when choosing a size. If the design features a-line shaping below the bust, you’re good to go and likely won’t have to modify anything. If the sweater is fitted all the way, and you’re blessed in the chest (that is, you have a significant difference between your upper and full bust), you may need to add short rows after sleeve separation (top down) or before sleeve join (bottom up) in order to get enough fabric for the girls to be comfortable. It’ll be well worth it for a sweater that sits perfectly on your shoulders and isn’t falling off to one side. If you need to add short rows, you can add them in dart form (click here for a great resource on this technique), or, they can go all the way across your chest with the shortest row being on the side-boob area (sorry for not coming up with more ladylike terminology here) and the longest row going across the entire front from the center of one underarm to the other. In September 2023, look for the Perfect Tee design from me, as it features this style of short row and the worksheets included in the pattern will be invaluable assets that can be utilized in other patterns going forward. For either bust short-row situation, I recommend using either the German or Japanese methods, as they are less visible than a standard wrap & turn and this is one area where you most likely don’t want to draw extra attention.
Designs with a lot of ease: if a design already has significant ease built in, that means that you can safely use your upper bust measurement to choose your size and still have enough room in your chest for the ladies. The reasoning for using the upper measurement is the same as above, you’re likely to get a much better fit at the shoulders and neckline if you’re able to use your upper bust as the decision-maker.
If you are often finding that your sweaters are too large at the shoulders, it’s (again) worth your while to use the upper bust to choose your size and learn how to modify at the full bust, which can be done in a variety of ways. You can use either of the short row methods noted above, add extra increases to the pattern itself in the front & back sections or increase the stitch count at the underarm. Just be mindful that if you increase the stitch count at the underarm, you will also increase the stitch count in your upper arm, which could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your desired upper arm measurement.
Full Bust (or full chest) & Length
This combination begins a series of paired measurements. The pairings are important because they allow for consistency in where your measurements are taken, and in this particular case, your Full Bust/Chest Length can be very useful to know if you’re working waist shaping in a pattern. Bust and Chest are synonymous, so I’ll stop repeating myself now and only use one term, just know that they refer to the same area!
Full Bust Circumference
If you’ve been knitting for any time at all, you probably know that the Full Bust Circumference is the measurement that a designer uses in determining all the other measurements for the pattern. I’ve mentioned “standards”, which are simply averages that we use in designing because it’s the best we’ve got and takes the maximum number of individuals into account. Here’s a look at the Yarn Council standards for women, which are just one example of a set of these standard measurements. Find your full bust measurement on the first line and look at the corresponding measurements below it; you might get an idea of why you have particular areas that you commonly need to modify! For me, I have a small bust and the upper arm circumference that goes with my bust size doesn’t work for me. Therefore, when I knit for myself, I almost always need extra room added on the top of my sleeve. If the situations I mentioned above in the upper bust section don’t describe the sweater you’re planning for, you should choose what size to knit based on your full bust circumference.
Full Bust Length
This might be a measurement you’ve never taken before! If you’re working a pattern that includes waist shaping, or you’re adding waist shaping to a pattern that doesn’t include it at all, this measurement is very important. You always want to have your full stitch count over your full bust so that you have enough fabric for good coverage. Therefore, if you’re working from the top down, you don’t want to start decreasing for your waist until you’ve passed your Full Bust Length. Conversely, if you’re working from the bottom up, make sure that all increasing is completed prior to hitting that length. It’s ok if a pattern doesn’t begin or end the shaping exactly at your full bust length, you just want to make sure that the shaping doesn’t interfere with it. If you’re adding shaping to a pattern, a great place to have your first decrease (top down)or final increase (bottom up) is about .5-1”/1.5-2.5 cm below this length measurement.
Waist Length & Circumference
This paired measurement is the most critical for waist shaping and it can also be useful if you love knitting cropped sweaters! A cropped sweater may be shorter than your Waist Length depending on the design, but if the total length is longer than your waist length, you’ll want to shorten the body of the sweater or else it won’t be cropped on you at all. Knowing the circumference at the waist will allow you to be sure that once your waist shaping is completed, you’ll have a similar level of ease at the waist as you do on the chest. If you find that there are too many or not enough shaping rounds for your Waist Circumference, modify! Be sure that the small of the waist on your sweater is at or slightly above the small of your actual waist. If it hits anywhere below, your waist shaping will not be flattering, as it will not mimic the shape of your body and instead will be snug as you get closer to your hips. To determine the amount of spacing over which you can safely work waist shaping, work the following super-easy calculation:
Waist Length - Full Bust Length = maximum length over shaping
Use this calculation to determine if the pattern’s set-up is going to work for you or not. If it doesn’t, go one step further and divide the length over shaping by the total number of shaping rounds you want to work (especially if you’ve decided to modify the total number of rounds). Then you’ll know how often to work your shaping and still have the small of the waist sit in the appropriate place on your body.
Upper Hip or “Favorite” Sweater Length and Circumference
Just like the paired shapings that came before, these two measurements correspond in order to make sure that you’ll have enough fabric at the bottom of your sweater for your Upper Hip Circumference. In the video, I called these measurements “favorites” because everyone has their own preferences about exactly where they want a sweater to hit on their hips. The longer the sweater, generally the more fabric needed around the bottom. If a sweater has a straight body, you’ll simply compare the full bust circumference to your upper hip circumference. As long as the full bust is larger than the upper hip, you’re good to go. If it’s not, you’ll want to think about modifying your sweater with some gentle increasing (top down) or decreasing (bottom up), in the area between your waist length and you Upper Hip Length in order to accommodate your hips. If a sweater includes waist shaping, it’s usually even easier to increase this total area because you’ll already have shaping markers set up and can add extra shaping rounds overall. If you are working your sweater from the bottom up and encounter this issue, you will need to cast on more stitches than the pattern calls for and make sure you get rid of the extra stitches before you get to your waist length, regardless of whether or not the pattern includes shaping.
Full Hip Length and Circumference
I won’t go on and on in this section because it’s really the same concept as in the previous one. If you are working a sweater that is this long, the bottom of it needs to accommodate your Full Hip Circumference. If you are working knit bottoms of some type, you’ll probably have chosen a size based on this measurement. If you do need extra fabric for your full hips, shape the are between your Full Hip Length and waist length as you would have between the upper hip and waist length for a shorter sweater.
Upper Arm Circumference: 4 ways
In this video, I explain a couple of very common upper arm scenarios. First, most of us have a different Upper Arm Circumference around our right and left arms. It doesn’t necessarily correspond to whether you are right or left handed, either, as that’s something I’ve asked my students regularly. Secondly, not all of us have the largest part of our arm at the very top. So, taking the four suggested measurements will allow you to determine which of the four is the largest and that’s the one you want to go with when you’re comparing your actual upper arm measurement to a schematic. It’s normal to have less ease (in terms of inches or centimeters) in your upper arm when compared to the ease in your chest, because ease is proportional and your chest is larger than your arm. However, in most cases you do want to make sure that the upper arm in your sweater is at least slightly larger than your largest actual upper arm measurement. If it’s not, you’ll want to modify by either adding extra stitches during your sleeve increases (whether they are on the sleeve itself for bottom up, or on the yoke/armhole section for top down) or by adding stitches to the underarm section. As for the full bust section, remember that adding underarm stitches will also increase the stitch count in the chest so don’t do this unless you know you want more stitches in both the chest and the upper arm.
Crossback, Back Neck Width & Shoulders
We’re at the final set of measurements! Whew! As for Back Neck-to-Cuff, you won’t typically see Crossback on a schematic, but you should see either Back Neck or Neck Circumference. Unless the design is a boatneck or features an intentionally wide neckline, neck circumference should be smaller than your head circumference. Back neck is a component of your crossback, but I’m going to briefly discuss the two separately.
crossback
Crossback measurements are most important in set-in sleeve designs. You want the crossback of the design to be smaller than your actual crossback in order for the sweater to sit nicely on your shoulders and for the sleeves to be at the top of your shoulder, instead of beginning further down your arm. You can calculate the pattern’s crossback by adding together the Back Neck and both Shoulders, the reverse of the formula shown in the video to calculate back neck using the other two measurements. But taking your crossback measurement isn’t just important for set-in sleeve designs, it can also help you determine if your back neck is set up nicely.
back neck
Although the total crossback should be smaller than your actual measurement, the back neck measurement in the pattern should be wider than your actual measurement so that you don’t get choked by your sweater but not so wide that its encompassing your shoulders. A common neckline issue occurs when a designer increases the width of the neckline by the same rate as they increase the chest. An actual neckline increases at a much smaller rate, and therefore if you’re knitting a larger size than is modeled, you really want to be confident that the back neck width is in a sweet spot and isn’t overly wide. If your pattern does not include a back neck measurement on the schematic and is a drop shoulder, raglan, or set-in sleeve design, you can easily calculate it yourself by looking at either the set-up row (top down patterns) or the final row before bind-off (bottom up patterns). Find the smallest stitch count in the back section and divided it by the pattern’s stitch gauge (over 1”2.5 cm). Voila! The number that you get after this simple act of division is your back neck measurement! Now you can compare it to your own. This is also where your actual crossback measurement comes back into play. If your back neck is more than half of your crossback, you might consider modifying it so that it has fewer stitches.
Now What?
I created these videos before I wrote the text to go along with them, and as usual, I ended up going into much more detail than I had planned! What can I say, I’m long winded and sometimes I just can’t help myself! However, I hope that even though this post wasn’t meant to teach you how to perform each potential modification, you know how to take your measurement and you know how it is supposed to compare to the schematic. You should also have a good idea of when and where modifications might be needed. There’s so much that goes into designing a single sweater, and then extended it to cover a wide range of sizes is a whole other thing! As a knitter, you should never feel constrained by a pattern. From suggested needle size to featured yarn to stitch counts, don’t be afraid to make modifications whenever you need to so that your sweater fits and flatters YOU! That’s what it’s all about.
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Briocherie: Quickie refresher tutorials for the skills you need!
Hello Briocherie!
Welcome to my Brioche refresher tutorials page! This is the central location to view my support videos that can help you to make your own Briocherie Pullover: brkyobrk, brk3tog and brsssk are all included. There is no audio within the videos. Written instruction slides are provided for thorough instruction, just pause to read them thoroughly & enjoy! If you find my tutorials helpful, I’d love to have your support with a pattern purchase.
The Briocherie sweater is made awesome by Spincycle Yarns, their colors are incomparably spectacular and I’ve used two different yarns in my sweater: Dyed in the Wool (main color, sport weight & color changing) and Versus (contrast color, dk weight & more consistent color).
abbreviations
brk: brioche knit or bark | brkyobrk: 2-st inc. (see video) | brk3tog: 2-st right-leaning dec. (see video) | brsssk: 2-st left-leaning dec. (see video) | LH: left hand | MC: main color | P, p: purl | RH: right hand | sl: slip | sl1yof: sl 1, yo, bring yarn to front, ready to brioche purl | st(s): stitch(es) | yfsl1yo: yarn forward, sl 1 st, yo, ready to brioche knit | YO: yarn over
There’s just one increase featured in briocherie and its the easy peasy brkyobrk. this increase is worked from a marked stitch in an mc knit column during an mc layer.
brkyobrk
Into a single st, brk1, leaving st on the LH needle, yarn forward under needle then over needle to back, brk1 into same st—2 sts inc.
These three loops are resolved on the next row as followed: sl1yof, p1, sl1yof.
the brk3tog (brioche knit 3 stitches together) is a brioche knit decrease that slants to the right. you will decrease two stitches. this decrease is worked over a marked stitch in an mc knit column during an mc layer.
brk3tog
Brk 3 sts together for a right-leaning 2-st decrease. The process for a Brk3tog begins 2 sts before the marked stitch. Note that a wrap is worked along with its stitch as only 1 st.
Sl 1 st knitwise, sl 1 st knitwise, brk these 2 sts tog, sl st back to LH needle, pass marked st over the brk st, move stitch back to RH needle.
the brsssk (brioche slip slip knit) is a brioche knit decrease that slants to the left. you will decrease two stitches. this decrease is worked over a marked stitch in an mc knit column during an mc layer.
brsssk
3 sts are worked together for a left-leaning 2-st decrease. This decrease process begins at the marked stitch itself. Note that a wrap is worked along with its stitch as only 1 st.
Sl 1st knitwise, sl 1 st knitwise, brk the next st on LH needle. Pass the slipped sts over the brk st one at a time, leaving the marked stitch on top.
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