How To: Short Row Raglan Shoulders
Thank you all for the wonderful comments on Somewhat Cowl!
Several people left comments asking for more details on the short rows that I inserted in the shoulders. I'll share with you what I did, and what I think you'll need to do for yourself.
The point I want to stress is that you must do this by trying it on your own body. Shoulder width, drape and stretch of yarn and armhole depth will all play a part in how many short rows you need.
Here's an updated version of the illustration I presented in my last post.
This illustration shows you how SC's shoulders fit me after doing the yoke. The end of the yoke came out at a soft angle rather than a harsh 90 degrees.
After looking at SC on my body in the mirror, I decided I need about 1.5 inches total length added in the center of the sleeve, tapering out to nothing at the edges.
So, here's what I did, starting with the first row of the sleeve after knitting the yoke (let's assume a gauge of 6 spi):
Row 1: Pickup and knit stitches at armhole, and then around the sleeve until 15% of the sleeve stitches from the center top of the sleeve are knit. So, if the sleeve had a total of 100 stitches, knit 15 stitches past the center top of the sleeve. Wrap and turn.
Row 2: Purl 29, wrap and turn.
Row 3: Knit 35, wrap and turn (picking up and knitting wrap when you come to it).
Row 4: Purl 41, wrap and turn (picking up and knitting wrap when you come to it).
Keep following the above, going an extra 6 stitches (1 inch) past the last row's short row until a total of 1.5 inches of short rows have been knit.
Once they've been knit, start knitting all sleeve stitches in the round. For short sleeves on SC, this means knit an inch of sleeve in stockinette before switching to 2x2 rib.
added later: grumperina left a comment that she also has written up some details on short row shoulders. you can read hers here.
Let me know if this makes sense, or if you think I've left something out. Like so many things in knitting (or just because I'm Italian and like talking with my hands) it would be a lot easier to demonstrate in person than try to get it down on paper.
Once again, it's Jody to the rescue with the fabulous modifications to make knits WORK.
So how do you hold a conversation when you're knitting? :) hee hee
This is one of the reasons I love stalking... euh reading blogs of more experienced knitters!!! I would never ever ever think about using short rows on shoulders! I mean I know them to add boobyspace, or on socks, but I'm not experienced enough to think about using them in the shoulder part of a sweater!!!
And I perfectly understood what mean... even without the help of the talking hands LOL. And although I'm NOT Italian, I do the hand talking too :)
cheers Eva
Just what I was hoping for. Thanks, Jody.
I have some diagrams and more words in my long-sleeve Picovoli tutorial that perhaps people might find helpful in addition to your explanation (http://grumperina.com/lspicovoli.htm).