Making CNC with a Set-In Sleeve

I will go down through the pages of the CNC to the point I deviated and then try to explain what I did from there.

I used Jamieson's Chunky Shetland wool on a US10 needle.  My gauge was 3.6 sts = 1 inch and 5 rows to the inch.

I used her measurement of chest plus 4" and a number divisible by 4.
So, 50 + 4= 54x 3.6= 196 which is divisible by 4.  Then 44x2= 88 for pocket.
196+88+284.

I decided I wanted a vertical visual look so I add a seed stitch--on knit row K6, P1.   on purl row purled.  I needed to add 1 stitch to center pattern--I put in the back so center stitch in back was that visual line.  Also, I made sure that I had a seed stitch where the side seam would be.  This is critical when getting things to line in the armhole decreasing. WOW 285 sts. Wrists were going to suffer through this project!

I decided that my brain couldn't handle getting purls to line up when I folded pocket back and fused, so I did pocket in stockinette stitch.  Being dyslexic--I finally know my limitations and just decided it wasn't worth figuring out this layout!  And, as many of you may have figured out by now--I don't rip--I try to figure out problems before spending all that time knitting! I made my pockets 7" tall--was trying to visualize how deep these pockets were on sweatshirts and wouldn't you know it I couldn't find one to measure.  Anyhow if sweater was to be 15" to the armhole I didn't think I wanted half to be pocket. Fused pocket.

As I was knitting up to armhole, it dawned on me that when I worked sleeve the wrong way, my seed stitch pattern would be off half a stitch.  This is when I started some serious number crunching on the rest of the pattern and wasn't getting numbers that I "knew" were going to work for a sweater for me.  And, too far along to scrap this one as I needed finished model in that yarn for TKGA market.   I had done the ribbing, so folded it around wrist to see how many stitches I need for cuff of sweater.  Some place in pattern I remember reading something about upper arm measurement plus 4" for width of sleeve and I figured out this number [if I make again, I will drop this back to 3"]  Because this was to be a set in sleeve, I knit body of sweater 15" to the underarm.
At this point I now made sure that the sleeve had the center stitch the purl stitch so that it would end up in the center of the saddle. I did sleeves on circular needles, and that seam stitch also be in center under the arm and did increases on either side working stitches into the pattern and ending with the right multiple of k6,p1 so that when doing the armhole shaping the sleeve seeds would line up with the body seeds.  [for details cuff started with 40 sts, for 2.5".  added extra stitch to center pattern, increased every 4th row to 71 sts. knit til 18" long]

At this point I did lots of number crunching.  I'll try to wade through this and hope it is clear.  I use a 15" shoulder measurement for all my set in sleeve sweaters, allocating 7" for neck, and 4" for each shoulder.  Given that, 15x3.6= 54 sts. I have an odd number so dropped to 53 stitches for width across back.   14 sts for each shoulder and 25 for the neck.  After I fused my pockets, I had 50 stitches in each front and 99 stitches in the back.  99-53=46 stitches that I have to get rid of in the armhole to get back the correct width. 46 divided by 2 = 23.  of this I put 13 on a holder and decreased at armhole edge 10 times.  [remember this is paper work right now not knitting]. 

That determined back, for the front armhole remained the same but I had to get that V neck figured out.  My front has 50 stitches, so minus the 23 used in armhole=27 stitches.   14 of these are the shoulder so 27-14=13 stitches need to come out in the v.   Somewhere long ago in one of the design classes I took and I think it was one taught by Ruth Rohn, the comment was made that if you start a v neck at the same height as the underarm and decrease every third row, its like magic, it works out!  And, for me it always has.   On this design I can't remember if I fudge on the last decrease or not. But, because the saddle takes up some length in armhole, the depth of the armhole in body parts of the sweater are shorter than a normal set in sleeve. And on gut instinct, I decided that I was going to knit the sleeves and the body at the same time just as written for the raglan shaping. So this meant that the cap of the sleeve and the armhole section of the sweater would be the same length--not usually the case, but that saddle was going to be there so figured it would all come out in the wash! 

On the sleeves, the top of sleeve was 71 stitches.  I needed 13 stitches for the saddles. I had the 26 stitches at the underarm on holders. 71-13-26=32 stitches that needed to be decreased to get it all to go together.  To ease my mine that this was going to work, 32 decreases consumed 32 rows divide by the row gauge was about 6", perfect for a sleeve cap!!

So, now for the knitting.  I knit across front, put the 26 stitches on a holder, added the sleeve, worked across back, etc.  Later, I kitchenered the under arm stitches together.  Now come a little trickier part.  I only had 10 decreases on the body part of sweater but 16 on the sleeve part of sweater.  I did the first ten rows of decreases as any raglan [remember, I am also decreasing every third row on front edges], then as I didn't want to interrupt the look of the decrease line on the body part of sweater so when I came to the place to do the decrease, I actually picked up the loop at back of stitch--read here as to increase, but I knitted it together with the next stitch so there was no increase or decrease.  But, the effect is to slightly elongate the stitch so it took on the same looks as those decreased stitches in the continuing sleeve decreases.  When I got to the 13 Stitches of the saddle, I followed directions to saddle up.  Saddled up the neck for an inch, and followed rest of directions.   Finished with 8 rows garter stitch.

I used 2.5" ribbing at bottom of sweater and on sleeve cuffs.  I find that proportionally this "looks" right.  With only 2" for some reason it doesn't pull in as much, just doesn't look tight enough. Longer than 2.5 it seems to become a design change and really seems to affect the garment having the affect of a design element, if this makes any sense.

All clear as mud? right??  But if you have any questions you can email me--maybe I can answer.

 

Pat Kirtland

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