Anne-Caroline and I have been emailing back and forth about doing a raglan in the round. Simple, right? The only sweater type that might be easier to knit is a drop shoulder.
Here’s the catch though. She wants to do the sleeves a different color from the body. In the round.
Have any of you come across a technique that would make this work? You guys always amaze me with your knowledge so I thought I’d ask. I kinda sorta remember hearing about a way to do intarsia in the round and this is pretty much the same thing.
I can’t seem to get my brain past the “yarn’s at the end of the section” problem to think up a way to make it work.
Where are the new pics?
It’s still dreary and overcast in my neck of the woods. Tomorrow is supposed to be 60 and sunny so I’m hopeful I’ll be able to snap a few pics for you tomorrow morning!
In order to do intarsia in the round, back from the recesses of my brain, one way is to knit back backwards, so when you get to the end of the row/round you would then knit the stitches off of the right hand needle onto the left. When you get to the beginning of the round, you then knit in the forward/normal direction. Then the intarsia color is always in the correct spot to be picked up and worked when you get to it! PGR has directions for this somewhere.
I tried it with a hat and when I was done I promised myself never to do that again. Each different colour of yarn must wrap around/over the next color of yarn to eliminate holes. I used paperclips instead of bobbins, that way I was able to squeeze all my knitting yarn through the tiny gaps between rows. It was just decorations on a hat but it was very difficult. I cannot imagine doing that with all the yarn needed for a sleeve. I know there is another short row method, but I haven’t tried it yet.
It’s funny, I was just thinking about exactly this yesterday! My solution… make a cardigan! Easy peasy… is she dead set on a pullover?
Jody – I also posted the question to my blog, and I think a combination of Johanna’s and Kate’s answers will work: What if, I do a raglan pullover, but not in the round, such that I will have one seam at one of the raglan edges. It’s not quite a cardigan, and it’s definitely not in the round, but that way I can achieve the color change. In my head, this seems feasible. In reality…????
Thanks for all your help on this!
Anne-Caroline,
Your idea sounds easiest to me and you could still do the bottom part in the round. (I do as much as possiuble in the round)
Do you have Maggie Righetti’s Knitting in Plain English? In that book she describes a way to make a neck down raglan pullover in the round. The sleeves are not done in the round, but will have seams. But the body is in the round. So I guess as you work the from the neck down you would have 4 balls of yarn and then when you seperate to do sleeves only, you would have your 2 balls for the sleeves. It sounds tricky, but I think much easier than some other methods.
If all you want to do is have contrast colors, the easiest way is to use 4 balls of yarn. That seems super simple until you get to the end of the row and your yarn is not there. When that happens, reach across to where the yarn you want to work with is hanging and cross it with the yarn you are using, now turn your work and knit the same stitches back the same way you came until you run out of yarn again. This is difficult to visualize so I suggest you try it. You will be working back and forth in a circle until you are finished with the color change portion. You lose the advantage of always working in knit stitches, but you keep the advantage of now seams.
fran