Because I know from my swatching that 7 rounds are enough to counteract rolling in this yarn, I’ll do that many rounds on the neck, compared to the 10 I did on the sleeves and bottom edge.
Knit-Up Stitch Counts
Starting at the back/right sleeve raglan join, I will knit up one for one on the back, sleeves, and bottom center of the front neck. Those are the easy places.
Along the diagonal and vertical edges of the front neck line, I need to use my stitch gauge to figure out how many stitches to knit up. The diagonals are 3 inches long, the verticals 5 inches. My post-laundering stitch gauge is 6.25 spi. That means I need 18.75 (so either 18 or 19) sts along the diagonals and 31.25 (so either 31 or 32) sts along the verticals.
The diagonals are 21 rows long, and the verticals are 42 rows long. That means I need to knit up in almost every row along the diagonals and in 3 out of every 4 rows of the verticals.
To knit up the new stitches, I will use a needle one size smaller than the 2.50 mm I’ll use to work the ribbing, just to be sure they will be snug instead of loose and potentially sloppy.
Allowing for Decreases
Once I had all the stitches on a circ, I planned out where I would work P3 ribs for the first 3 rounds of the ribbing. On round 4, I will decrease each P3 to a P2 with a P2tog–P1 so that the inner edge of the ribbing is 2×2.
Why do I decrease partway through? Because I want the ribbing to lie flat against my skin rather than sticking up from it or being ruffled because it has too many stitches. I’ll put P3 ribs in all the “corners” where the shaping happened: at both ends of the front neck diagonals, at the corners between the sleeve/back, and along the entire back neck.
If possible, I will put a K2 at the center front, but if I can’t because of the number of stitches I’ll knit up there, then I’ll center a P3 there instead. For symmetry purposes, I want either a knit or purl rib smack-dab in the middle of the center front neck.
The Final Layout
I made a small diagram showing the various shaping edges, marked off with spaces to indicate each stitch I knitted up. Then I just played around until I got P3 ribs along all the “corners,” filling in the rest of the space with K2 and P2 ribs.
There were 156 sts around the neckline, and I created 28 P3 ribs, which gave me 128 sts at the neckline edge. Considering that my post-laundering gauge will be 6.25 spi, that means the final neck circumference will be 20.5 inches, a not insignificant fact considering my head is 22.5 inches around! My large noggin is the main reason I prefer V-necks and this customized lowered crew neck I call a “U-neck.” I don’t like struggling to get a sweater on and off!
You can be sure I tested my bottom-edge BO for stretchiness as a way to soothe my nerves.
The Knitting
I wound up doing the knitting on two circs, as it was just too awkward working on a single circ, even before I did the decrease round. Then I neatened up the junction of the bound-off edge’s beginning and ending, using my standard technique.
Yarn Usage
I finished the ribbing with 24.90 g of color 1 left.