A.R.A.N. PROJECT

Date: Mon, 2 Jun 1997 10:01:25 -0500
To: Multiple recipients of list 
Subject: KNIT: A.R.A.N. #11-Report from Central-small problem solvings

Good morning all

A.R.A.N. reports continue to pour in and everyone is busy knitting. We now
number 60 knitters. Latecomers are most welcome to register with me! Tracy
was the first to report in that her sleeves were finished, and I just read
that Debbi is almost done...she really saved time by reknitting the slight
cable error stitch by stitch instead of frogging.  And Leigh is
proofreading for us...by the time we get to the raglan decreases you WILL
have them figured out, right Leigh?

I am really enjoying looking at my sleeve parked on the coffee table of my
living room waiting for me.  It's such a comfort to have around.  I just
finished knitting off the last full cable repeat and it is too long.  I am
going to let it rest for a few days and then frog back to the desired
length...sure beats trying to figure out exact measurements while I am
actively knitting.  Lisa's post on her "Aran Recipe" got me to thinking
how crucial gauge is to the final fit, and Leigh's admission that he
doesn't mind frogging and reknitting brought two important points out... 

1. If you only want to knit the body once, and you are certain of your
exact size need, then the more you swatch your final cable choices, the
quicker the knitting will go...eventually. 

2. If you want a pretty faultless estimate, copy your sleeve patterning
exactly in the SAME PROPORTIONS. In other words...for every 84 sts, you
will need to have 1 Knitlist Cetic Plait (34 sts) and 50 sts in Double
Seed Stitch. This may turn out to be boring or not look right...you'll
have to look at your sleeve and imagine the plait centered and how many
plaits will arrange themselves along the front and then the back.  Where
will the stitch counts end evenly? It gets fun.  I haven't really begun to
think about the body...So, YOU start thinking.  And as Lisa said...get out
your stitch treasuries or visit the library and see what they have. Our
local librarian is a knitter and SURPRISE the knitting shelves sag under
the weight of Barbara Walker and Elizabeth Zimmerman.

This came from Tracy, and in the interest of clarifying this point, I will
answer here... 

"ARAN - sleeve length 
I think I need some advice on sleeve length for this project - I measured
a sweater that I like, and the sleeves are 19.5 inches long, so I made
mine 19" (7 repeats of the Knitlist Celtic Plait in my yarn) to allow for
a little stretch.  I'm planning to make a 50"  circumference sweater, so
25" + 19" + 19" gives a wingspan of 63".  When I measured me, I had a
wingspan of 53".  Should I only make my sleeves 14"  long (25+14+14=53)? 
I've never calculated a sweater before, but does this make more sense?"

Tracy...the length of your sleeve is better determined by the length of
your yoke (or another measurement is the armhole depth). The width of your
sweater will not make a difference IF your armhole depth is right. Check
back to A.R.A.N. post #7 for a COMPLETE discussion of this point, but a
QUICK answer is below:

"So, how long will you knit this sleeve? If you started off this whole
project by measuring a sweater that fits you well, you have a good
reference point. First of all, add your DEPTH OF ARMHOLE to your UNDERARM
LENGTH OF SLEEVE.  I envision the yoke of my sweater to measure 10" (nice
and deep for layering and letting the cables fall well to look stunning!)
so I will subtract 10" from that sum.  For me: 

9" + 18" = 27" - 10" = 17"

So, since I am anticipating a little stretch, I will knit for a total
length of 16".  " 


"Another question:  The big cable crosses (slip 3 st to able needle, K 3
from left needle and K 3 from cable needle) are always a little strained
or tight.  If I pick at the stitches, they tend to even out somewhat.  Is
this common, or am I doing something wrong (pulling too tight, perhaps)?"

You are fine...it happens and will even out later when you wash your
sweater...especially if the yarn is wool (VERY forgiving of tension
glitches). You can try using a smaller cable stitch holder (even a
toothpick!) or none at all as Mel has, through the miracle of cutting and
pasting, (re)explained below... 
 
"Would some kind soul please send me or lead me to the instructions for
knitting cables without a cable needle.  Somehow I missed this one.  TIA
Sheilah in Northern Maryland, just South of the Mason-Dixon Line EEE11"

From Mel (MWaite1597@aol.com)...  

Where do you keep your cable needles??--NOWHERE--I don't use them.  I
absolutely hated to knit Arans, even though I loved the way they looked,
because of the constant need to pick up/put down/ keep track of cable
needles.  Then I read EZ's explanation of how to do a cable without one. 
That really changed my life--I have knit many Arans since then, and only
very occasionally run across a stitch pattern that needs a cable needle
...it was in Woolgathering #48, the shawl collared vest. I'm quoting EZ
here: 

"To turn a 3/3 cable without a spare needle, you need to change the
position of the stitches on the L needle. R over L:  slip the next 6
stitches off the L needle, pick up the first 3 stitches with L needle in
front.  Pick up the last 3 stitches with the R needle behind, and transfer
them to the L needle. Now knit 6.  L over R:  Slide the next six stitches
off L needle.  Pick up the first 3 stitches with L needle behind.  Pick up
last 3 stitches with R needle in front and slip them onto L needle.  Knit
6." 

This works with almost ALL cable patterns, from 1X1 crosses to great big
fat ones like the one on the A.R.A.N sweater, and is MUCH easier to do
than to describe in words.  If you already know how to do a cable, you'll
see how this works right away. Once in awhile, you run across some kind of
a knotted cable or something where it won't work, but you can do about 99%
of all cable patterns this way. 

Putting the stitches back on the left hand needle is sort of an "extra"
step, but I find that it actually takes much less time than picking up a
cable needle (assuming I can find it in the first place), and the knitting
moves along much faster." 


And so I'll close today with fondest thoughts to Marilyn in NJ, who wants
nothing more than admittance to the Grouchy Old Women's Hall of
Fame...don't change

Claudia knitting at Countrywool overlooking Blue Hill in the Hudson Valley
of NY State in the USA 
Countrywool@berk.com
get the complete Anyknitter's Revolving Aran Network (A.R.A.N.) pattern
at: Esther's Knitting Page  http://www.cs.oswego.edu/~ebozak/knit