So one of my daughters decided she wanted this, from Nashua Handknits, City Streets Pattern Book from the Autumn 2008, Winter 2009 collection, but, and here’s the kicker, she wanted a cardigan, not a pullover.
How hard can it be? Just knit in a button band and we’re good to go right?
Wrong. As usual, I didn’t take into consideration everything when I went into my “pattern alteration” mode.
The sweater itself turned out beautiful, in a gorgeous bright blue, but, see the cable band across the shoulders? It’s too heavy to support itself since it wasn’t joined together.
Several options. I could “winch it up”, with a strand of yarn run up both sides of the front before I put on the buttons, but that resulted in a “bunchy” area, not very pretty. So, what I ended up doing is just sewing it back together and putting buttons up the front, just a if it were really a cardigan, but it’s not.
Looks great, she likes it, all is well, but I sure wish I could forsee these things!
What would you have done? (other than the obvious, duh, what did you think would happen when you left that much cable unsupported…)…
Looking for knitting patterns for knitted Cardigans? Check out these Knitting patterns we found on Etsy.
Looking for pullover and sweater patterns? Check these books out.
Jeanne says
Wow, that is a heavy cable – so beautiful. Your “winching up” involved just sewing a single strand of yarn up to create some tension. The winching I’ve done involved crocheting a chain up the saggy part. This means that there are two strands of yarn doing the work. I’ve done this on neckbands, when the designer thought having a continuous neck to body stretch was great then the whole thing started sagging around the neck.
On my sweater the sagging was vertical, so I crocheted a horizontal line about where the neckband should have been picked up if it weren’t continuous. I’m wondering if your winching could have been done in a star pattern following the lines of the sweater from the neck down to the bottom of that beautiful cable yoke. That’s what I would have tried. I’m glad your daughter was happy with your solution too.