I’m about 8 inches up the back.
I’m feeling a little stupid. I swatched, blocked, and measured. Abby’s chest measures 27 inches. The pamphlet I have for basic patterns and yardage suggests a 32 inch sweater for Abby’s age. That seems extreme. I’ve heard that 4 inches is a good ease for a comfortable fit, but percentage-wise, that seems way too much for a kid, and this pattern suggestion would be 5 inches. So, the swatch measured at 5.5 stitches to the inch. I figured that if I followed the 32 inch pattern for a gauge of 5 stitches to the inch, it’d be a good compromise, not taking the extra twenty seconds to do the math, ’til I was 5 or 6 inches into it. So, instead of the back being 16 inches across, it’s going to be 14.5. Which will give me a 29 inch sweater. That’s still bigger around than her chest measurement, but it’s closer than I’d wanted.
Should I add a little bit of extra width on the two fronts?
To back up a bit, we did some sketches a couple of weeks ago, and Abby picked her style. Open front, tie at the top, set in and flared sleeves, deep scoop neck, simple stitch pattern. She picked a couple of stitch patterns, which I swatched, and we decided on the mock cable eyelet, size 7 needle. I’m going to follow the 32 inch pattern from the Handy Book of Sweater Patterns, modifying it somewhat to fit.
Today, the girls are getting haircuts. I’m not a fast haircutter, so it’s probably going to take much of the day.
My feet hurt already.
August 2nd, 2007 at 11:18 am
Rather than adding width to the fronts, could you just block it out a little more? I’ve had good results with this technique. I’ve had poor results making the front wider than the back. Maybe you could add a panel on the side seam that would add a little room?
August 2nd, 2007 at 11:52 am
You are super productive this week! The sweater looks fabulous. My motto with kid’s clothes is that bigger is always better so that they can wear it longer. I like Danielle’s idea of adding a panel on the side seam to get that extra 2″ around. (1″ panel on each side). You could make it as part of the front, but it’d be centered under the sleeve?
Seems like the time of year to start working on fall sweaters 🙂 (PS. I made progress on my alpine lace stole – I posted on my blog)
August 3rd, 2007 at 7:44 am
My kids sweaters have always turned out too wide (I’m too lazy to do all the proper swatching and measuring) and my kids only grow longer, never wider till they are about 13. So you probably don’t need to stress about it.
I love the color and pattern. AND the stitch markers! can you leave them in? 🙂