Since I’m using less yarn than I estimated from the weights and stitch counts of my swatches, I am definitely going to do some increases down the body as I work the final three colors. With the five-inch difference between chest and hips, it’s asking a lot of an unshaped sweater to make that large an accommodation.
I will do an increase round of 4 stitches every 9 rounds (so every inch after laundering), working the increases outside the three stitches centered at the left and right side “seams.” Leaving three stitches untouched between the shaping means no chance of get tangled up on the increases when I drop the center of those three stitches for hooking back up my EZ phony seams.
And because I’m doing phony seams, I will change colors in the second stitch after those central three at the body’s left “side seam.” If I changed color right at the actual “seam” stitch, that would greatly complicate both the dropping down and hooking back up of that stitch to make my phony seam. So I’ll finesse that issue away by doing the color changes three stitches away from that central stitch.
Picking the Increase Method
Because the yarn is non-resilient, I don’t want to use an increase type that steals yarn from existing stitches, like working in the running thread (sometimes called a raised or bar increase). I also, as a matter of preference, don’t like KFB, because I have to think too much to get the resulting “purl bump” symmetrically placed. In a non-resilient yarn, I think the twist added by working in the back of the stitch might also feel lumpy. I routinely use the “knit into the leg of the stitch of the row below” for socks (sometimes called a lifted increase, but I now think of the mirror-image pair as Cat Bordhi’s LLinc and LRinc), but there is a definitely obvious appearance to the results, which I don’t always like or want.
Eliminating all those types of increases pretty much leaves me with yarnovers. No yarn is stolen from existing stitches, there’s no lumpiness from a twisted stitch, and there’s no obvious change to the fabric. Well, except, of course, for the resulting holes. Because I don’t want holes, though, I’ll work the yarnovers in the trailing legs (the ones farthest from the needle tip) on the subsequent round. But because I also want the resulting crossed legs to cross in opposite directions, one yarnover at each side “seam” will actually be a reverse yarnover, made by wrapping the yarn around the working needle in the opposite direction.
I have markers before and after the three stitches centered at each side “seam,” with the left side “seam” also serves as my beginning-of-round for changing colors as noted above. So on the increase rounds, I * K to the first side seam marker, rev yo, K 3, yo, and repeat from *.
Working the Increases
The part between asterisks above worked fine at the right side “seam,” which is mid-round. But at the beginning of the round, I actually did the first increase (the reverse yarnover) at what is technically the END of the previous round (the last round before the increase round). I did so because I wanted the increases, though they would be mainly invisible, to look like they occurred on the same round. Because the BOR is where the round number changes, then for the pair of increases there to look like they occurred on the same round of actual knitting, I have to make the first increase of each increase round what is technically, counting-wise, one round early. If I wait to make the increase at the end of the numeric round, then it will look like it was done one round late compared to the one at the beginning of the numeric round. That’s because working in the round actually forms a continuous spiral, exactly like a Slinky. The end of every round looks like it’s one round higher than its beginning.
Oy, that’s harder to explain in words than to work in needles and yarn!
I started the body shaping on round 2 of color 3, which meant I actually did the first increase (the reverse yarnover before the left side “seam” stitches at the BOR) at the end of round 1 of the new color.
I made a total of 10 increase rounds, adding 40 stitches by the bottom of the sweater. At my laundered gauge of 6.25 spi, I added 6.4 inches to the circumference. There’s only a 5-in difference between my chest and hips, but I did the hip measurement over underwear, not over the jeans and belt I’ll wear with this sweater, so the extra 1.4 inches means the bottom edge should skim nicely over my clothing.
Yarn Usage
After finishing the 34 body rounds of color 2, I had 37.14 g of yarn left. After finishing the first sleeve, 29.27 g remained, and I finished the second sleeve with 21.54 g of color 2 left.
I finished the 34 body rounds of color 3, during which I started the body shaping, with 40.50 g left for the sleeves. I finished the first sleeve with 24.08 g remaining and the second sleeve with 7.18 g left.