Having thought through the entire edging situation several times, I think it’s easiest to start in the middle of the process: how I’ll knit (or purl!) up stitches along the combined neck edgings to form the first row of each sleeve’s stitches. Once I know how I’ll do that part of the process, it will be obvious which row will need to have been the last one I work on each of the front-neck extensions.
The Back Neck
Since I prefer to start all major knitting stages and milestones on the right side, I’m going to want to knit/purl up along the front extensions’ cast-on edges such that when I turn to work the first actual row of the back neck, that first row is a RS row 1. So instead of knitting up along the front extensions’ CO edges, I will indeed have to purl up along them. I’ll do my usual crochet CO for the free edge between them.
My first plan for heights of the neck edge’s rectangles makes the back neck 10 rows tall before I knit/purl up for the sleeves. That means I’ll be finishing a WS row, which puts me at the left shoulder, because the CO edge between the two extensions will be at the top of my back neck.
The First Sleeve and Its Front Extension
Very good. That means that I’ll create stitches for the left sleeve along the left front’s extension and the left end of the back neck (left meaning the wearer’s—my—left as the garment is being worn). Since I’ll still be looking at the WIP’s wrong side as I rotate to create those stitches, I’ll actually need to purl up stitches for the left sleeve. Then when I rotate to work the held live stitches of the left front’s extension, I’ll still be working a WS row, which means I need to work the left front’s extension such that I end having worked a RS row. If I work through row 19 in pattern, then I’ll work row 20 after I’ve purled up the left sleeve’s stitches.
The Second Sleeve and Its Front Extension
Very good again. I turn in the usual way this time, so that the RS is facing me, then work back across the left front, the left sleeve, and the back (and the back will still be in pattern, since I want the back neck’s edging to be a total of 14 rows deep). Now it’s time to knit/purl up along the top-ish of the right sleeve. Since I’ll keep looking at the WIP’s RS when I rotate (not turn) it to access the outer edge of the edging rectangles already worked, I’ll knit up the right sleeve’s stitches. I will again rotate (not turn) the WIP to work a RS row on the right front’s edging extension, so I will have needed to stop that front extension with a WS row.
I will have worked row 21 on the left front’s edge extension, and now I need to work row 21 on the right front. That means I will need to have worked 20 rows on the right front’s edge extension before breaking off the yarn.
When I have worked row 21 on the right front, I will have the entire yoke’s stitches on the needles, in pattern, in order, and ready to continue down to the underarms.
Knit/Purl-Up Rate
Exactly how many stitches will I need to purl and knit up for the sleeves on those two rows? I’ll use simple ratios to figure those numbers out.
My stitch gauge is 24.5 per 4 inches, and my row gauge is 38 per 4 inches.
For the left sleeve, I’ll have the 10 rows from the back neck’s edge plus the 19 rows from the left front neck’s extension, so 29 rows. My ratio using my row gauge is
x inches 4 inches -------- = -------- 29 rows 38 rows
Multiplying both sides by 29 gives 3.05 inches’ worth of rows.
So how many stitches will I need to purl up along those 3.05 inches’ worth of rows? I figure it out by using a simple ratio with my stitch gauge:
x sts 24.5 sts ----------- = -------- 3.05 inches 4 inches
Multiplying both sides by 3.05 means I need to purl up 18.68, so 19, sts for the left sleeve.
For the right sleeve, I do the same thing. I’ll have the same 10 rows from the back neck plus 20 rows from the front, or 30 total rows.
x inches 4 inches -------- = -------- 30 rows 38 rows
Multiplying both sides by 30 gives me 3.16 inches. I now use that distance in my ratios with my stitch gauge.
x sts 24.5 sts ----------- = -------- 3.16 inches 4 inches
Multiplying both sides by 3.16 gives me 19.36, so 19, sts I need to knit up for the right sleeve.
Yippee! They’re the same! If they weren’t, then just for the sake of my sanity, I’d probably knit and purl up the same number of sts on both sleeves.
Since my all-stockinette raglan sweater at these gauges starts with 6 sts on each sleeve, I think I’ll purl or knit up only 18 sts rather than 19, since the sleeves will always have an even number of stitches after each increase row.
Is It Really Row 21?
When I work top-down, I number rows starting from the top of the back neck, which is the highest point in the sweater. In this garment, when I finish “row 21” on the front extensions, I won’t have worked row 21 of the overall WIP. Instead, I will have finished row 11, since I worked 10 rows of the back-neck edging before purling up the left sleeve’s stitches, then turned, worked row 11 across the left front, left sleeve, and the back, and finally knitted up the right sleeve’s stitches and worked the right front’s extension.
Going with my preference of starting major project milestones on RS rows, and because for this particular garment I’m doing shaping either every other or every fourth row (rather than at an interval of an odd number of rows), that means that when I’ve knitted up the stitches for the right sleeve and finished the right front, I will turn the WIP to the WS and work WS row 12 evenly all the way to the end of the needle.
At that point, I will be ready to start working the raglan shaping as scheduled, once the schedule shows that I have the proper number of stitches in each section for the given row. That is, I won’t have to do the raglan increases for some time on the two fronts and on the back, because from the get-go they’re wider than they would be in my normally-worked top-down raglan. But on the sleeves, I’ll have to start the raglan increases almost immediately.
Just to help me keep things straight, I’ve created a table showing the stitch counts of each section on a row-by-row basis, the stitch counts being how many stitches there should be in each section after I’ve done the increases, if any. If I have fewer stitches in a section that I should for that row, then I’ll do the raglan increases. Otherwise, I’ll work that section evenly. (The V-neck increases all occur every 4 rows once they start, which I’ll do on the same row as the second of the every-four-row raglan increases for the sake of my sanity.)
As noted above, I’ll purl or knit up 18 sts for each sleeve. Since my stitch-count chart shows me that the all-stockinette equivalent sleeve would have only 16 sts on row 11, then I think I’ll designate the extra stitch on each end to be the “raglan stitch” separating each sleeve from the front and the back. Phew!
Increase Technique
As I’ve never been a fan of knitting in the front and back of a stitch (because I don’t like the way it tightens the fabric and because I can never remember how to pair them so they look symmetrical), I’ll continue to use yarnovers and reverse yarnovers for the raglan and V-neck increases, exactly as I did on the very first adventure, which was also a top-down raglan. For increases positioned before the raglan line being formed, I work reverse yarnovers. For increases positioned after the raglan line being formed, I work ordinary yarnovers. So at each raglan line, I work “rev yo, K1 (the raglan stitch), yo” for my paired increases.
On subsequent rows, I work into all the yarnovers’ trailing legs (that is, the ones farther from the tip of the needle) to twist them shut.
An ordinary yarnover will have its left leg on top once it’s twisted shut, and a reverse yarnover will have its right leg on top when it’s twisted shut. Because of where I position the two types of yarnovers relative to the central raglan stitch, the increases’ top legs will point at the raglan line. This final appearance is purely a matter of preference, and in future projects, I may decide to work raglan increases as “yo, K the raglan stitch, rev yo,” and that ordering might be your usual preference.
Along the V-neck, I’ll work the two types of yarnovers at the boundary between the neck edging and the stockinette so that the neck edging stitch pattern remains intact. So on RS rows with V-neck increases, I’ll “work the right neck edging, yo, work to the left neck edging, rev yo, work the left neck edging.” On the next row, I’ll again work both yarnovers in their trailing legs to twist them shut. Each yarnover’s top leg will point at the neck edging, which I think does a better job of minimizing the increase’s appearance.
In other projects, I (and you) may decide to work the yarnovers in their leading legs (the ones closest to the tip of the needle) so that their holes add a visible element to the raglan line. And in that case, there would really be no point in piddling with reverse yarnovers anywhere, because the legs wouldn’t be crossed, so all the yarnovers could be worked as ordinary ones.
Time to get knitting, so fingers crossed! (Though how I’ll knit with crossed fingers is unclear…)