Short-sleeved kimono (Part 2)

I have been planning how to knit this kimono.   I think it will work best if I start at the lower left garment side (we are looking at the pattern as it hangs on the knitting machine, meaning the wrong side is facing up). 

Starting at the point I have labeled  "2" in the diagram below is the default approach in the Garment Designer instructions, but that will result in having to cast on a large number of stitches at the underarm seam.  It will also mean knitting non-continuous pieces.   It means that the increases for the angled pieces will result in a jagged seaming edge.  I prefer to seam along one-stitch knitted edge.  So I am going start instead at the point I have labelled "1" in order to short-row to achieve my smooth seam.  I'll start with the angled side and leave it hanging on the needles until I reach the same row with my sleeve. 

 I have set the zero points (origin points) at the bottom left (for rows) and the middle (for stitches). The diagram (see the red line marked "1") tells me at I will have 100 stitches at the point of a straight line (red line), between the center (0) needle and the right side (100) needle.    I cast on with waste yarn and knit several  rows, before I knit my seaming row. 

I am knitting the wedge marked "1" first, then moving to the wedge marked "2" and continuing up the sleeve. When I reach the underarm, I will knit the two pieces together as one row and continue knitting as normal.

 Garment Designer is uniquely visual in the way it prints the instructions.  You work from the bottom of the instructions up, the same way you knit your garment from the bottom to the top.  The software does the math, but it assumes I started at row 0.  Instead, I wanted to start at Row 44!  For now, I am ignoring rows 0-43.  Since I am short-rowing, instead of increasing I am putting stitches in work.  Refer to the instructions in the screen shot below in box labelled "1".  Note that the labelling is consistent from the diagram to the shaping instructions, "1" instructions refer to the wedge-shaped piece marked "1" in the diagram.

 I knit the first complete row (row 43), my seaming row, using all 100 stitches to the right of 0.  So for my first short row (per the chart,  row 44) I will pull 7 at the right stitches to working position.  Carriage is travelling left to right.   I had previously set the method of shaping in GD to shape only on alternate rows, but not strictly.  This means I can always shape on the side away from the carriage, knitting the complete row, wrapping, and returning without shaping. The second row (row 45), I pull 7 adjacent stitches to working position and knit back (row 46 has no shaping on this part, shown in box 1 below.) Row 47 I am knitting 15 additional stitches and wrapping, row 48 has no shaping.  Row 49, I pull 14 stitches back to working position. I continue on following the chart.

 Garment Designer is very visual, as I noted.  It is expecting me to be casting on these additional stitches when working from bottom to top.  It shows the increases on the left side of the section.  Because I am short-rowing and not increasing, I am working on the right side instead of the left side.  It is an adjustment I made to achieve the result I wanted.  To keep track of where I am, I started my row counter at 43 because that correlates to the lines in the instructions.  Notice that rows 50 and 56 have no shaping instructions inside box labelled "1", the shaping for those rows is on the left side of the bed, which does not even have any needles in work at this point.  When I reach row 57, I put the last 11 needles in work.

So, I have come to the end of my "wedge" that I created in box 1.  When all the needles on the right of 0 are in work, and will remain in hold while I continue knitting the sleeve, or left side of the piece as I face it, there is a potential that the carriage will cause abrasion of the yarn while travelling back and forth.  See my post from November 2017 for an illustration of this problem. 

 So I am knitting several rows of  waste yarn to take any abrasion that might occur.  The next step is to put all these needles in hold position until I am ready for them, and when I reach row 58 and it is time to join the 2 pieces I will "frog" or unknit the rows of waste yarn and return my garment yarn to the needles.  Note also that my weights are hanging from the waste yarn I used to cast on, not from my garment yarn.  The weights can distort stitches, but the waste yarn smooths out the uneven tension. 

In the meantime, I will knit the sleeve, reversing the logic used above to reverse the slope of the wedge piece.  I dreamed (literally) last night that I should use a crochet row on the right side of the garment to reinforce the edges of the sleeves.  I dreamed of doing 3 rows of crochet, every other row, but realized on waking up that could cause issues due to the short-rowing.  So I'll just use one row to give a firm edge.  

I thought you might get a laugh from seeing the "industrial-size" cone of variegated rayon yarn I am using for this project.  The yarn on the left is a normal-sized cone of Tamm Varsity that I won as a door prize at Spring Fling.   There is literally no chance I will run out of yarn.  Part of my dream last night involved making an entire wardrobe from these yarns.   

Abrasion

I was making some progress on the surprise sweater, but I am currently stalled.

I finally realized that for every four pairs of rows knitted, I needed to put one stitch in hold every three rows at this gauge in order to make a perfect (well, almost perfect) 45-degree angle.  I was working away and feeling really proud of myself at how well the miter was shaping up (pun intended) when I noticed two problems. 

Can you see it here?  The first problem is that the reason you can see the diagonal line of my miter so well is that there are HOLES in my knitting.  These might be caused because I was not paying any attention to wrapping when I was short-rowing.   These stitches are also showing abrasion from the carriage passing over them.

The second problem which might be a little more difficult to see in this photo, is even on the area of the garment that is in hold position, there is abrasion and pilling at the current row.  I believe this is caused by the brushes rubbing the same stitches on every pass of the carriage.  I am making sure to take the carriage past the row counter to keep track of my knitting, and each time, the stitches are irritated.  You can see a "hazy" line under the needles, like a little cloud of fuzz.

Well, this garment will not be worn on church on Sundays, the way it is currently going.  I have a couple of choices.

1. Rip back the entire miter, and the last two or three rows prior to beginning the miter, break the yarn, and throw away (or use for future waste yarn) and find my place in tuck stitch, then resume knitting with my new knowledge, hoping there is enough yarn to finish the sweater.

2. Continue with this garment from where I currently am, and treat it as a fitting garment, what we call a muslin in the sewing world.  Did I mention that this yarn was free along with the purchase of a slightly (hahaha) used knitting machine?   Make the final garment in a better yarn (hoping to get same gauge), and this time, prevent the holes and the abrasion from occurring.  After fitting the garment and making any needed adjustments, cut this up and make doll blankets out of it by serging the edges and putting a ribbon trim.

3. Continue with this garment from where I currently am, and come up with a creative way to embellish it to cover up the problems.  Embroidery?  Applied I-cord? 

Since I managed to drop 75 percent of the stitches when I put the needles back in work to start the next section,  I just covered the machine up and left it, until the next time we visit the farm.  This project is taking a time-out while I decide which approach I will take. 

In the meantime, I am thinking about how I will avoid this abrasion the next miter or the next time I knit this sweater.   I think the best approach will be to take the "held" stitches off on waste yarn while knitting the miter.  This includes the stitches in the miter as well as the left side of the garment in hold at the beginning.    Then there will be no possibility of the carriage abrading the stitches. It will mean some extra time to rehang them before starting the next section, but I can just consider it part of my meditative practice.