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Wendy’s Boat Neck Math

August 25, 2010

Hi Spud & Chloë Friends,

I am excited to bring you Wendy’s directions to make a boat neck sweater. Wendy just got her Sweater in Chipmunk yesterday – click here to view a photo. She is going to make a boat neck version of the raglan pullover. She has provided her beginning instructions which are different than the crew neck beginning instructions.

The rest of the post is from Wendy taken from the Friends of Spud & Chloë forum, knitalong thread. By the way, the Easy Top-Down Raglan Knitalong is currently at #8 on the new and popular (most active recently published designs) patterns on Ravelry. You have to click on “more” to see all of the patterns on the list. That is great news!

Now to hear from Wendy….

Wendy: This is going to be a long post, but I want to tell you about the boat neck math. Beyond this first part, you will follow the rest of the KAL. It is only the first part that is different. You will cast on for the entire neckline and join in the round without any neck shaping.

I am just beginning to plot out my boat neck. I do not plan on having an off-the-shoulder-a-la Flashdance sweater, so I’m going to stick to about 20” around, which is 10” across the front/back. The yarn will stretch and I plan to knit the neckband in at the very beginning rather than adding it on at the end, so it will stretch more. If you are beginners, follow Susan’s advice and knit in the garter stitch edging last. That is a good way to go. Also know that I might cast on and re-knit it if this particular sweater doesn’t fit the way I want it to. The math that follows, however, should be easy to adjust if you have a different beginning neckline measurement.

Any rate, for those of you who are interested, this is my math. The separation of the sleeves from the body parts will be the same as the KAL:

My gauge is 5 sts per inch

I want a 20” starting circumference for the boat neck, meaning, I will cast on all sts and knit in the round from that point forward

So, 20” x 5 sts per inch = 100 sts

Separate Front / Back = 50 sts each

Acquire 1/3 or .3333’s worth sts from each body section for sleeves, so: 50 sts x .333 = 16.65 sts. Round DOWN to 16 sts (ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA TO ROUND DOWN FOR SLEEVES UNLESS YOU HAVE LARGE UPPER ARMS)

After I work the 1 – 2” of neckline trim, probably seed stitch or a seeded rib or something simple like that, I will work one last round and place my markers. From that point forward, I will follow all of the instructions for the KAL:

I have 100 sts. 50 for front/back each.

I will take away a total of 32 sts for the sleeves, or 16 sts for EACH sleeve.

Here is the math: 100 total body stitches / 2 = 50 sts for front/back

One body section equals 50 sts. So, I will take 1/3 or .333 from it for one sleeve: 50 x .333 = 16.65. I will round down to 16 sts for one sleeve.

So, 2 sleeves equal 32 sts (16 sts x 2 sleeves = 32 sts)

Therefore, 100 TOTAL stitches minus 32 stitches equals 68 sts for the back/front (100 – 32 = 68)

To delegate back/front: 68 body sts (back/front minus the two sleeves), 68 / 2 = 34

Before I begin working the raglan increases, I will place markers as follows: K34 (front) pm, k16 (sleeve), pm, k34 (back) pm, k16, pm for beg of round.

From that point forward, follow all directions, increasing on either side of markers….

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