Back to that Rib'nShrug thing - I decided to make one for me and experiment with making the
body a bit longer and adding an A-line flare…sorry it took so long to get this
up…I've been wearing it and forgot to tell you about it! On the seafoam one, I ended up putting the ribbed section from the shoulder, down under the arm, around the back, up under and around the other sleeve, leaving the back neck with no ribbed section (the original had the ribbed piece going all the way around so the ribbed edges met at the centre back neck). This looked real cute on Wendy and didn't have so much extra overlap in the front so I did the same for mine. I'm really happy with it and you could put a shawl pin on to close it up but it doesn't really need it and looks good with the bottom portions folded back, no overlap.
For the ribbed piece, when laying it out, at each side, have
single end needle on main bed and then whatever needle arrangement you want. This will
make a neat edge both for the seaming side and for the unfinished bottom edge.
To make shortrowed darts – CAR, turn off row counter. Bring
all to hold except 15 at right – have last needle in hold (the one that gets
wrapped) on main bed – this will work better when returning the needles to work
– I have found if your wrap is on a ribber needle, it tends to drop when being
returned to UWP…oh, so the dart was hold 15 sts, KWK, 5X; cancel hold; knit to
next dart. I added 7 darts across the back – total length of the ribbed piece
was 450 rows, darts not included, so first dart was at RC075 – I turned off the
row counter for the dart – dart was every 50 rows to RC375 for last one.
Make sure when sizing up that you estimate correctly for
extra yarn needed. The seafoam one was the XS size and weighed 275g. For my olive one, I made the
largest size yoke and to the body, added 10 sts at each side and 7 gores of 10
rows X 60 sts and thought, oh, that shouldn’t take too much more - wrong! I had done the yoke/sleeve portion
first and I got a little more than half way through the ribbed body portion – it
seemed to be just eating up that yarn ! Sure it was a part cone, but I had
weighed it before starting – 370g and I thought that would be plenty. Now, how
likely is this? I would have not only another part cone of the same colour but
a part cone of the same dye-lot? Yes,
there is a knitting god! My final garment weighs 410g…Now, shall I keep on experimenting and extend the ribbed, flared body into a circular piece that will come up over the back of the neck for a shawl collar/hood effect?
