Any knitters out there?

[tephra]

morganalilith you alive?

I'm trying to find a pattern, preferably free or cheap, for a circular knit cardigan. So far I've found these:

Nigella by Berroco, part of a pattern booklet that costs $7 and only has two patterns that I would actually wear. This one is a bit plain and has a disturbing nipple like thing going on at the center back but it has the general size and flow of what I want.

Kia Kia by Berroco, this one is free but... well it's just fugly. I hate the yarn and I'm pretty sure if I could actually see the stitch work I'd hate that too. It uses a lot of drop stitch ladders and I never have liked the look of those. It's also not as big and swoopy as Nigella and lacks sleeves.

The DROPS cardigan has a wonderful stitch pattern but is much too fitted. This is probably the closest to what I want though, and it is free... but can I manage to alter the pattern to make it all nice and loose and sized for me? I like the way they do the arm holes though, that's clever.

I'm contemplating trying to locate a circular shawl or tablecloth pattern and trying to figure out where I could stick sleeves in it at this point. :P

I probably won't end up knitting it, yarn is not cheap and I'd have to buy knitting needles as well since I never had my own (I used mom's) but... I hoard. :)

Trying to knit with three cats in the house might be pushing my luck anyway.

Comments

[morganalilith.livejournal.com]

i'm here. just laying low. :-)

i think you could make any of these work. you're creative and not afraid to experiment, right? as far as using a circular shawl or tablecloth pattern, IMO that's pretty much what these are, with the addition of armholes/sleeves. if i was going to go with one of the patterns, i'd probably go with the drops pattern and adjust the size. but then, i prefer free patterns too.

have you ever seen elizabeth zimmermann's book 'knitter's almanac'? it's got instructions for a circular shawl that's pretty easy to understand. actually, all her patterns are pretty easy to understand. she was a genius in that regard. i picked the book up at borders, years ago, for 4.95. but i'll bet it's in lots of libraries as well.

anyways, i think this is an excellent idea. maybe i need one too. :D

[tephra]

While ripping out rows and rows of knitting isn't fun it's certainly something I'm familiar with. :) I've always had to alter patterns to fit.

The more I look at the DROPS cardigan the more I think it is the best starting point. I'll need to expand the chart so I get another 10cm of width in the back and then expand out past the sleeves to get the big drapey fit. The only real "size" on these is the shoulder width and armhole length so they aren't too bad to alter. According to the gauge I just need to do another 11 rounds before I do the armholes and use 45 stitches for those rather than 30. I'd probably work the sleeves a bit longer before I start decreasing since I know I'll need to lengthen those too.

Guess I just need me some size 10 dps and circs and a heck of a lot of yarn. I'm not big on the two yarns together thing so I'll have to ponder the yarn issue a bit.

The DROPS site has a lot of very pretty free patterns though.

[tephra]

I think this would do it.



I'll need to check my math a few more times, the double layer conversions with both two sets of knitting gauge and the metric to imperial conversions make for too many places for mistakes.

But, I got out my handy dressmaker tape that is both metric and imperial and worked out that I need 60cm for my upper arm which is six times the gauge so 90 stitches... heh, found a goof already, you pick up 6 in addition to the amount you worked with the scrap (which is doubled) so I should work 42 stitches rather than 40 for the armhole.

The 76 stitches works out to about 20 inches which is what I need between the sleeves but then you have the straight versus curved problem.... *ARGH!* but I think it's right based on the pattern directions, I'm basically making it "XXL" with wider sleeves and more material in the front, which is the rounds after the sleeves.

I tried keeping the lace to stockinette proportions of the pattern but since I added more to the front/outside rounds I don't know if that is a good idea or not, as you can see it makes the center star extend into the front a bit more. On the other hand it keeps from sticking the sleeves in the middle of the lace....

I need to let it stew a bit. Time to try to figure out what sort of yarn it use. It's rather annoying when a pattern lists brands without an indication of the yarn weight. Do you think it's sport weight? Worsted? It seems thicker than lace weight. But then again, it's being used with another yarn so maybe it is lace weight.

*sigh* I wish they included yardage with the grams, then I could make a reasonable guess.

...

Aha! I found an online store that has it and lists the weight and yardage, 197yds and 1.75oz for Alpaca and 120yds for the cotton-viscose. So if I want to use one yard rather than two (and boy, I don't want to think about tackling lace with two yarns) do you think sport weight or worsted? At least I have an idea on yardage now. :)