Easy Donna Update

The main item that I'm working on right now is a fitted, short-sleeved, raglan pullover loosely based on a pattern called Donna from Magknits. Before I go any further, I'd like to take note of my thoughts on the pattern and the modifications I've made. Then I'll be able to figure out where I'm going from here.

First, I'm using the recently discontinued Lion Brand Cotton-Ease in Candy Blue instead of the called-for yarn. The ball band has a suggested gauge of 4.25 stitches per inch, but I think that is a bit loose -- especially for this close-fitting pullover. I'm using a US size 5 needle for a gauge of 5 stitches and about 7.25 rows per inch. This is right on for Donna's stitch gauge, but the pattern has a row gauge of 5.5 rows per inch. I think this may be a typo though because that would be an odd ratio of stitches to rows. At any rate, I'm happy with the way the Cotton-Ease is knitting up. The stitches are very distinct; the fabric is soft and still has a nice drape even at this tighter gauge. Plus, I certainly can't complain about the cost of this project. I found these skeins for about $2 each at Tuesday Morning, and the top looks like it may only take about 4 skeins total.

The major modification I'm making to the pattern is that I'm knitting the whole thing in the round as oppose to knitting flat pieces which will be sewn together. For the lower portion of the body, this has simply been a matter of combining the instructions for the front and back while disregarding the stitches which would have been taken into the seams. I worked the number of stitches for the back plus the front minus the four would-be selvage stitches. For each sleeve, two edge stitches were subtracted. Where I would otherwise have bound off stitches at the underarm on both the body and the sleeves, I put them on stitch holders instead. Then I joined the sleeves and the body into one big circle. From this point, I'm going to be combining the instructions for the front, the back, and the sleeves. I've placed stitch markers where the seams would have been and I'll work decreases on either side of them, instead of at the edges of separate pieces. Incidentally, the designer recommends decreases which slant towards what would be the seam, and I will be doing the opposite. In other words, I'll be working a k2tog before each marker and ssk after each marker. Once I start shaping the v-neck, I'll actually be knitting back and forth again, working all the way from one side of the neck opening to the other. Where the pattern has you bind off stitches at the top of the back and the sleeves, I'll just leave them on the needle, pick up stitches in the V, and work the ribbing around the neck. Finally, I'll take the stitches from the underarms and work them together in a 3-needle bind-off. I left an extra long end of yarn at each underarm for this and continued working the joined sleeves and body with the skein I'd been working the body with.

To smooth out the point where you join the cast-on for knitting in the round, I used a little trick that I learned from the knitlist: Cast on 1 extra stitch, slip the first stitch of the round, work around to just before the last stitch in the round, and knit the last stitch together with the slipped stitch from the beginning of the round.

On the body, I jumped right in with my size 5 needle instead of beginning with one size smaller as the pattern does. (I figured I didn't really need the ribbing around my hips to pull in any more.) My Denise needles proved brilliant for this project because they made dividing the front and back and putting the underarm stitches on hold a breeze. Just before I knit across the stitches I wanted on hold, I attached a short extension between the needle tip and the main cord. Once I'd knit those stitches, I unhooked the extension with the underarm stitches on it and put a cap on each end. Voila! Stitches on hold! Then I reattached the needle tip to the main cord, continued knitting around the body, and did the same maneuver on the other side. When I'm ready to work those stitches, I'll just put a needle tip back on one end and knit right from the holder. I was also able to try the top on at this point by attaching another long cord to my main cord. The fit was good, and I was able to check this without slipping stitches back and forth between waste yarn and working needle.

The pattern as written has elbow-length sleeves. I've changed mine to short sleeves. I calculated the number of stitches you would have at the upper arm after working all increases and cast on that amount (making sure I had a multiple of 4 so the k2 p2 ribbing would come out correctly). The pattern has you go down one needle size for the ribbing so I used a set of size 4 double points. (The smallest needle in the Denise set is a 5, and I can't make a small enough circle for the sleeve with them anyway.) After 2.5 inches of ribbing, I attached the sleeves to the body and switched to stockinette stitch. At this point the pattern has you knit straight across the ribbing which runs up each side of the body as well. I'm going to continue the purl columns up to where the slant of the decreases cut across them.

Now that I'm about to do the neck shaping, I've discover some minor annoyances with the pattern. It asks you to work up to the center stitch and then place that stitch on a holder. The problem with this is that there are an even number of stitches here. There is no center stitch! I'm just not going to bother with putting a stitch on hold. I can see a similar problem with the instructions for the back. It says to continue decreasing until you have 35 stitches. Umm, you never have 35 stitches. You have 36 stitches, and then after the next decrease row, you have 34. I figure I'll just wait and see whether one more decrease row will look better once I get there. Another issue I have with the neck shaping is that some of the decreases occur on the WS. I prefer them all on the RS so I will be getting out some graph paper to see if I can't rework it. I'll also be finishing the neck with k2 p2 ribbing to match the other edges, instead of the k1 p1 ribbing in the pattern.

There you have it -- all you could possibly want to know and more about my project. If you're still with me, you must be knitting this top too and making similar modifications!

tags: knitting