Sweater-grading math: fun? Or crazy-making?

How about some numbers? So I looked up the standard measurements for German baby clothing sizes and multiplied those chest measurements by my gauge (2.8sts/cm, if you must know) and got... some odd results. Frex, size 80 (10-12 months) and size 86 (13-18 months) came out pretty much the same, so I have all these little two-month ranges and then suddenly this sweater will fit your infant for nearly a year. That seems unlikely. Quite a few of these sizes seem profoundly unlikely, actually.

Size	50	56	62	68	74	80-86	92	98	104-110	116	122
Fits	newborn	1-2m	2-3m	4-6m	7-9m	10-18m	1.5-2y	2.5-3y	3.5-5y	5.5-6y	6-6.5y
cast on	80	88	88	96	96	104	104	112	112	120	120
sts/section	10	11	11	12	12	13	13	14	14	15	15
Increase rounds
r4 r12 r20 r28 r36 r44	14 18 22 25 — —	15 20 24 28 — —	15 20 24 29 — —	16 20 24 28 30 —	16 20 24 28 32 —	18 22 26 30 33 —	18 22 26 30 34 —	18 22 26 30 33 35	18 22 26 30 33 36	20 24 28 32 35 37	20 24 28 32 35 39
Divide after r	32	36	36	38	42	42	42	44	44	48	48
Stitch count
Total per section	200 25	224 28	232 29	240 30	256 32	264 33	272 34	280 35	288 36	296 37	312 39
Front & back	55	62	64	66	72	74	76	75	80	82	87
sleeves	45	50	52	54	56	58	60	62	64	66	70

[I don't know why Blogger's inserting these weird indents.]

Bear in mind that all of these numbers were achieved with an online baby size chart and the calculator in my phone. No knitting was perpetrated on any of these sizes except for the smallest one. 

So yeah, I'll probably need some test knitters.

Grading the Lucky Baby Lopapeysa

The other night I went down a rabbit hole of sweater-grading math, and now I have a bunch of columns of mysterious numbers. There was some serious figgery-pokery going on (that's like jiggery-pokery, only with numbers): this is the math I would have to do to get the numbers I already have, so if I apply that math to these other numbers, hey presto! A knitting pattern that may or may not work, in five sizes in addition to the one I already have (what sizes? According to the Craft Yarn Council's chart, an improbable assortment indeed).

This would seem to be the time to call for test-knitters, but I'm hesitating. I should figure out the numbers for a raglan variant before I do that, and then I would have to commit to being able to answer questions over the next few weeks, and hey, it's early spring. My goldfish attention-span is way worse at this time of year and I could wander off at any minute. Maybe I should just test-knit all eleven sweaters myself to avoid having to deal with other people.

Yeah, because that requires less attention-span? Sigh, no: Because it carries less potential for disappointing people.

Oh right, this exists.

It's less contrasty
in real life

I seriously had no idea it had been that long since my last blog post.

So the WeatherCAL that Arja invited me to! Is making progress! I do fall behind occasionally, but I'm all caught up now. I've made a few changes to the color scheme – that jump from yellow to pink was just too abrupt, so I went in search of an orange. That is not the fashion color this season; no solid sock yarn at all, and the other types at that gauge were all danger-sign bright, so I bought a 100g skein of gradient orange-ish sock yarn and now I have to figure out how to use only the darkest bits. Fortunately orange is for 25°–27°, so the light should be good enough by then. If I were using it for a temperature likely to occur in January, I'd be sunk.

My progress so far

The colors now

 This is fun! I'm finding it takes about half an hour to crochet one square and attach it to the blanket. I really love the colors it is right now, but I sure hate what they represent: it's COLD! I mean okay, the lows happen in the middle of the night when I'm snug a-bed, but that little green square is my favorite one so far and I am looking forward to having more of them.

I promise to try and update a little more often than every two months from here on out.

Happy Almost 2019!

At the behest... well, no, request... actually, more like a suggestion - of my awesome friend Arja, I am going to crochet one teeny granny square per day next year, and sew them all into a teeny blanket and then... oh, probably give it to some baby somewhere. Anybody having a baby in 2019? Arja will too! Crochet a weather blanket, I mean, not have a baby. Only it's hexagons, not squares. And I don't know if she's planning to give hers to a random baby or keep it, but otherwise it's like exactly the same.

Here is a sample square I made a few days ago: the center bit represents the low temperature (below 0°C), the middle ring is the color of the sky that day, and the outer bit is the high temperature (I think it was 4°C that day).

The color card (click to embiggen) shows my temperature scale, and down there on the left is the plan I finally came up with for how to sew the squares together. I initially thought of starting at the center and working out in a spiral, but no I don't think so. And below is the whole project fitting in a box! Clearly this is a project to do at home, not on the go, which will be difficult on Tuesdays and Thursdays because I leave the house at 7:30 and get home Very Late Indeed and Also Quite Tired, but I think no one will be surprised to find me crocheting a granny square for each day, but not necessarily on each day. One of my resolutions for the coming year is to learn to recognize and work within my limitations.

So who's with me!? Haha, yeah, I know. If I wanted you to join in, I should have given you more time to plan. Apologies for that. The recognizing limitations thing is a work in progress.

The Lucky Baby Lopapeysa basic pattern

So here it is all in one post, and each subheading links to the post that describes the steps in more detail, but for an advanced knitter, this should cover the most important points. If it does not, please let me know, and I will amend accordingly.

Materials

• About 1/3 of a skein of Aldi or Regia 4-ply self-striping superwash sock yarn
• Most of a skein of Aldi or Regia 4-ply superwash sock wool in a complementary color
• 2.5mm and 3.0mm circular needles
• 8 stitch markers
• A tapestry needle and a length of quilting ribbon to act as a stitch holder.
• A crochet hook for the cast-on and bind-off is optional.

The collar

Using the provisional cast on of your choice, cast 80 stitches onto a 2.5mm circular needle.

Work 16 rounds of 2x2 ribbing.

The yoke

Round 1: change to a 3.0mm circular needle and knit each stitch together with its base.

Round 2: place a stitch marker after every 10^th stitch. Color changes will occur at the center back, but rounds will be counted from the center front.

Round 3: knit to the third marker after the center back marker. Slip the marker, wrap the next stitch, and turn. Purl back to the center marker and then continue to the third marker after that. Slip the marker, wrap the next stitch, and turn. Knit the full round, working each wrap in with the stitch it wraps.

Round 4: increase 4 stitches in each section, as evenly spaced as possible.

Rounds 5 & 6: work even.

Round 7: knit to the second marker after the center back marker. Slip the marker, k7, wrap the next stitch, turn. Purl back to the center marker and then continue to the second marker past that. Slip the marker, p7, wrap the next stitch, and turn. Knit the full round, working in the wraps.

Round 8, 9, & 10: work even.

Round 11: knit to the second marker after the center back marker. Slip the marker, wrap the next stitch, turn. Purl back to the center marker and then continue to the second marker past that. Slip the marker, wrap the next stitch, and turn. Knit the full round, working in the wraps.

Round 12: increase 4 stitches in each section, as evenly spaced as possible.

Rounds 13 – 19: work even.

Round 20: increase 4 stitches in each section, as evenly spaced as possible.

Rounds 21 – 27: work even.

Round 28: increase 4 stitches in each section, as evenly spaced as possible.

Rounds 29 – 32: work even. Consider changing back to the base color in one of these rounds. Also, move the markers: keep the center back marker. K 27, place a marker (right back); k 45, place a marker (right sleeve); k 28 (right front), you should be at the center front marker. From the center front marker, k27, place a marker (left front); k 45, place a marker (left sleeve); k 28 (left back), and you should be back at the center back marker.

Separate the sleeves from the body

My way of doing this may be somewhat idiosyncratic, but you may find these instructions useful if you've never done this before.

For each sleeve:

Knit 45, make 5 for an underarm gusset, join to work in the round. Work two rounds even, decrease out two of the gusset stitches. Repeat twice more. You will have decreased 6 stitches.

Work 9 rounds even, decreasing two on the tenth round. Repeat this once more. You should have 40 stitches, at which point you work ten more rounds even, then switch to 2.5mm circular needles and 2x2 ribbing for 8 rounds. Bind off stretchily.

The body

Knit around the body stitches, picking up 5 stitches at each underarm, in the base of the sleeve gussets. Decrease these stitches out in the same pattern as for the sleeves: two rounds even, decrease two stitches, repeat twice more. Then work even until there are 80 rounds from where you joined the collar. Switch to 2.5mm needles and 2x2 ribbing for 16 rounds. Bind off stretchily.

Work in the ends. Wash. Block. Hug.

Step 5: The body

The body is actually the simplest part. As you may recall from Step 3,

Finish the left sleeve, cut the yarn, and then start at the base of the left sleeve and work the back stitches to the center-back marker. That was round 33.

As you cross the center-back marker you begin round 34. Knit to the right sleeve and pick up five stitches in the base of the gusset stitches you created for the sleeve. Work across the front and pick up five more stitches in the base of the left sleeve gusset.

Work two rounds even and then work paired decreases in round 37 to mirror the decreases in the sleeve gussets on both sides. Work another two rounds even and then work paired decreases in round 40.  Work another two rounds even and then work a double decrease in round 43.

From here work even in the round until you have knit a total of 80 rounds from the beginning of the yoke.

Change to a 2.5mm needle and work 16 rounds of ribbing. Bind of stretchily.

Work in ends, wash, block, hug.

Step 4: The sleeves

Argh, I keep forgetting to take pictures! Why does it get dark so fast?

So in the previous entry. we put the front, back, and left sleeve stitches on a holder and now we have 45 stitches on the needle. Now we start a 5-stitch gusset. I generally place a stitch marker before the last sleeve stitch (on the right needle) and after the first sleeve stitch (on the left needle), so that with the gusset I have 7 stitches between markers.

Magic-loop the needle and pick up or make 5 gusset stitches. I usually do as follows:

1. Knit into the stitch below the last stitch on the right needle, 
2. Pick up a stitch in the ladder between my needle and the holder, 
3. Make one backward loop, 
4. Pick up another stitch in the ladder between the needle and the holder, and
5. Knit into the stitch below the first stitch on the left needle. 

I find this makes fewer holes. But you can do 5 backward loops or whatever you like best.

From here, work three rounds even and then decrease in the fourth round: slip marker, ssk, k3, k2tog, slip marker. There should now be 5 stitches between the stitch markers.

Do a second pair of decreases in round 7: slip marker, ssk, k1, k2tog, slip marker.

In round 10, do a double decrease: slip 2 knitwise, k1, then pass the 2 slipped stitches over the k1.

From here, knit 9 rounds even and decrease two stitches on round 20; either a double decrease like on round 10, or paired decreases on either side of the center stitch.

Knit 9 rounds even and decrease two stitches on round 30.

Knit 10 rounds even, for a total of 40 rounds, and then change to 2.5mm needles and ribbing to match the collar.

Bind off as stretchily as possible. I recommend Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off. Cut the yarn.

From here, as I mentioned in the previous entry, start knitting at the base of the right sleeve, leaving a tail long enough to tighten up any holes that appear in the underarm. Knit across the front stitches and the left sleeve, then place the front stitches back on the holder and knit the second sleeve in the same way as the first.