A blog about my life, knitting, and other stuff.

January 29, 2009

The Short Row Shaping

Several of you asked me to explain the short row shaping on my sweater in greater detail. In The Opinionated Knitter, Meg Swansen adds in a note about the fair isle yoke sweater "consider working 2 or 3 sets of short rows at the base of yoke." She goes on to explain that the short rows should work well into the front of the sweater (10-12 sts in). So here is what you do.

Just after joining the sleeves to the body knit around until you are 10ish stitches into the front of the sweater. Wrap and turn. Work until you are 10ish stitches into the other side of the front. Wrap and turn. Work back until you're 5 stitches shy of the wrapped stitch. Wrap and turn. Do the same for the other side. You can then work a third set of short rows or continue knitting around, picking up the wraps and knitting them together with their stitches as you go.

That's it. It subtly raises the back of the sweater and doesn't interfere with the pattern at all. I forgot to do this on my son's sweater I knit recently and it shows. The front of the neck is too high and it makes the fit of the sweater look decidedly homemade.