Reading Cardigan - Chapter 2
Once you finish knitting the collar extension, you will begin the body of the sweater. What is on your needles now is the back neck. You will need to pick up stitches along one side of the collar extension for the body.
Page 11 of the pattern has a great diagram of the stitch markers and set-up row. Here is mine after completing that row. From here on out, you will be working the Shaker Rib as established. Work your set up row and main pattern rows.
The pattern notes that you read through the entire yoke section before starting. This is a necessity because there are a lot of ‘at the same time’ instructions.
Now, you may remember that in the suggested tools list I gave at the beginning I mentioned locking stitch markers- and a lot of them. Why do I suggest so many?
I knitted this sweater originally from a sample knitting version of the pattern that had some errors in it. Errors that I didn't know about until I had already separated for the sleeves. While the changes were not major, they impacted the start of the neck shaping increases and the rate in which you increase. I decided that I wanted to match the most up-to-date version of the pattern that would be going out to the public. Luckily, I used my markers to mark every single increase.
Before frogging. I had just split for the arm holes.
After frogging back almost 6 inches of knitting, ready to re-start at the neck increases.
I was able to take my needles out and just rip out until I reached the incorrectly placed neck increase. Because I marked each increase and tracked them on my spreadsheet (see below) I was able to put my stitches back on my needle and knew exactly where I was on the pattern. Now you are most likely knitting from the most up to date version and won’t have the same issue with the pattern as me, but you may miss an increase or forget how many you have done. It is possible to find this out by reading your knitting, but if you have markers in there it takes no time at all to see where you are.
Raglan Shaping
There is a lot to keep track of here, it is very important that you read through the pattern to understand the rate you are supposed to be increasing the body, sleeves, and neck. The first row for every size is a Raglan Increase Row which has increases for the body and the sleeves. After that, the sleeves and body are increased at different rates. Occasionally those will line up, for example Row 21 in the Size 2.
One of the things I recommend when keeping track of multiple increase rates is making a spreadsheet in Excel/Numbers/Sheets to keep track. I use the far left column to track row numbers and set a column for the body, sleeve, and neck increases. Here is a screen shot of the first few rows of mine. I use check marks to indicate what increases should be done on that row, and highlight the row in blue once I have completed it.
Neck Increases
You don’t start the neck increases until you reach a certain measurement, so hold off on adding those into your spreadsheet until you reach that point. This will vary based on the size you are knitting and your row gauge. My first neck increase was very close to the raglan increase, so don’t be surprised if your neck and raglan increases begin next to each other. Start measuring around row 20 or so to make sure you don’t miss the start of the neck increases. Once you reach the specific measurement for your size, you can add check marks to your spreadsheet.
I highly recommend the spreadsheet method of row tracking- it will be useful in any number of sweater patterns that use different sleeve and body increase rates. Give it a try on this pattern! It will save you so much time and avoid the headache of losing that post-it note with your increases marked on it.
If you are not familiar with spreadsheet software or want to double check yours against mine, fill out the form below and I will share the sheets with you. I have completed sheets for every size and Brooklyn Tweed has given me permission to share them with KAL participants. You can also ask for them in-store and we are able to print out the sheet for your size if you have purchased the Reading Cardigan pattern. Note that these are not written by Brooklyn Tweed, and I have only knitted the Size 2 sheet. If you are knitting a different size and notice something that seems off, send us a message and I will double-check.