Best Laid Plans

Cate the next 2 posts are for you! I'm gonna tell you how I did my steeks for the Fair Isle.

Before one can actually take scissors to a knitted sweater that is 2 years in the making, one must plan for the event.

My sweater cardigan needs to be planned out. I have 300 stitches in the round which means that there are 150 sts for the front and 150 sts for the back. Out of these 150 stitches I need to figure out how many I'm going to use for the shoulders and for the neck hole.

Being a fan of Mrs. Zimmerman, I decided to employ the percentage system and adjusted it to suit my needs. I also have to remember that this cardigan is meant to have the shoulders drop onto the arm so I'm going to need extra shoulder stitches for that.

150 stitches = 100%

Shoulders
40% x 150 sts = 60 sts
2 shoulders x 60 = 120 sts

Neck
Remaining 20% x 150 sts = 30 sts

Now that the calculations have been made, I took some left over cotton yarn and blocked off the stitches.



All of the separate sections of stitches are on individual waste yarn holders. For example, the 60 shoulder stitches for the front are on a separate waste yarn than the back shoulder stitches.




Next, I decided on where I wanted to cut open the front as well where to place the sleeves. I then ran waste yarn down these areas so I knew where to place the steeks.

After all the stitches are on the waste yarns and I know where I'm going to place the steeks, I turned the sweater inside out and did a 3-needle bind off on the sleeve area.

This was enough work for one day. Tomorrow, steeks!