Yesterday I went over important tips about stranded knitting and incorporating German short rows in knitting my version of the lovely Jay Sweater by Rachel Brockman. Originally designed to be knit with the very soft Fibra Natura Kingston Tweed, the sweater is turning out beautifully knit up in Universal Yarn Deluxe DK. I’m giving you a sneak peek at the finished sweater, read on to see how I worked it up to add the stranded knitting pattern at the bottom edge. It echoes the yoke beautifully.
This is a sneak peek at the finished sweater, read on to see how I worked it up to add the stranded knitting pattern.
Adding short rows changes the placement of the sleeves
I changed the placement of the sleeves from the original pattern since I added the German short rows.
In the pattern, the front 108 stitches were knitted after the BOR marker, then the 66 stitches were taken off for the sleeve. I couldn’t follow these instructions, as I had added the German short rows.
Since they were lined up on either side of the BOR marker, I split the number of stitches for the back so they lined up evenly on either side of the BOR marker.
I knit 54 stitches, took the next 66 stitches off onto waste yarn and cast on 10 underarm stitches.
I then knit the front 108 stitches, took off the next 66 stitches, cast on another 10 underarm stitches, moving my BOR marker to the middle of these stitches.
Knitting the final 54 stitches brought me back to the original BOR marker which I then removed.
Making the bottom edge stranded knitting pattern
Learning the multitude of knitting skills and techniques gives a knitter the freedom to alter a pattern at will. Unlike the original Jay Sweater pattern, I decided to add a stranded knitting pattern to my bottom edge that mimicked that of the yoke.
Since I had lots of yarn, I knitted approximately 14” before starting my bottom edge portion, which makes the sweater longer for wearing over my winter tights.
For the bottom edge stranded pattern, I decided on knitting 3 stitches in color Lime Tree (main color) and knitting 1 stitch in the color Ice Rustic (gray contrasting color). This 4-stitch repeat divided evenly into the 348 body stitches.
Second row, I alternated colors every stitch, green, gray, green, gray etc., making sure the opposite color was knit over the stitch below.
The third row is the same as row two, alternating colors making sure opposite color over each stitch.
The fourth and final row, same as the first row but 3 gray stitches this time and 1 green, again knitting the opposite colour stitch over the one in the row before.
The bottom ribbed edge
Time to start the ribbing which I knitted with the Ice Rustic yarn. Before I started though, I knitted one final row to decrease a few stitches before starting the band. I like my ribbed bands on the snug or fitted side, so I always decrease stitches before starting the rib on most of the sweaters that I knit.
I knit 2 together every 5th or 6th stitch. For this sweater I knitted 2 stitches together on every 6th stitch. Though this didn’t divide evenly, I had 3 stitches left at the end of round, it makes no difference to the look of the rib, just makes the rib slightly smaller.
I switched to my LANTERN MOON Destiny Ebony US 5 [3.75mm] circular needles and knit 13 rows of 1×1 rib, then 2 rows of stockinet before loosely casting off.
The color stranded bottom edge adds a little something to the finished sweater.
The Jay Sweater is coming along beautifully and the more it grows the more I good sense for how soft Universal Yarn Deluxe DK really is!
Join me in my next post as I have tips involving knitting the sleeves!
This is part 3 of 5 in this series
Go back to part 2: Cast on, stranded knitting, and German short rows | knitting the Jay Sweater
Go to part 4: Knitting the sleeves of the Jay Sweater | filling in the gaps
