Do the math, get the fit / Fall Knit Along Day 1

It’s here! The fall knit along (KAL) featuring the Remy Pullover casts on… today! For this sweater, you’ll need to be able to knit in the round, purl, knit decreases, cast on and cast off. Now, you’ll notice our sweater has some cabling too. If cables give you the willies, you can simply knit stockinette stitch where the cables are.

If you’ve been out of the loop, check out this post for what’s up with the fall knit along and what supplies you’ll need.

First thing’s first! Know your size.

Grab a friend and a measuring tape, and get your measurements. Since this fall’s KAL is brought to you by Lion Brand Yarn, I’m going to go ahead and share my go-to guide for measuring yourself for a knit sweater. It’s a guest post by New Stitch a Day on Lion Brand’s website, and covers everything you need to know about measuring for a sweater. For this sweater, you’ll only need to measure your bust (for me: 40″), neck (14ish”), raglan (7″), body length (12″ from armpit to widest part of hips), natural waist (30″), hips (40″), and wrist (6″).

Yup, I’m a natural hourglass size M/L. I didn’t want to do any tailoring into my 10″ narrower waist on this pattern since that’s a pain, so the body/torso of the sweater is simply constructed as a big tube. Pullovers are supposed to be nice and chill and comfy, right? :)

image via New Stitch a Day/Lion Brand

Second thing’s second! Test your gauge!

It’s not everyone’s favorite thing in the world, but making a test swatch of your yarn is everso important. I knit myself a simple stockinette swatch of 28 stitches by 20 rows. For new swatchers, you’ll cast on 28 stitches and work 20 rows, alternating a row of knitting and a row of purling.

I did block my swatch of Wool Ease yarn using my usual blocking technique. I measured my gauge before and after blocking, and since Wool Ease is 80% acrylic and 20% wool, I noticed no difference in the gauge I was getting before and after blocking my swatch. In basic terms, that means this yarn don’t shrink.

My gauge: 11 rows and 8.5 sts over 2 inches, a.k.a. 22 rows and 17 sts over 4 inches, a.k.a. 5.5 rows and 4.25 sts over one inch.

Third thing’s third! Do the math.

We’re knitting this sweater from the bottom up, starting with the tube that forms the body (torso) of the sweater. So based on my gauge swatch and personal hip measurement, I need to multiply my 4.25 stitches per inch by 40 inches for my hips. 40 x 4.25 is 170. Since 170/2 is 85 and I wanted a number evenly divisible by 4 for this pattern, I decided to cast on 172 stitches, which divides by 4 to 43 evenly.

If you do your math and get an odd number or a number not divisible by 4, you need to decide if you want to round down or up a couple stitches. Why? Because the first several rows of the sweater are a knit 1, purl 1 rib worked in the round. When you work a rib in the round, there has to be an even number of stitches so the rib repeats perfectly in pattern around the edge. And why divisible by 4? Because I like symmetry in my patterns sometimes, that’s why! ;)

Make sense? If not, please remember to holler in the comments or the KAL Ravelry group for any clarification you need. I’m here to help.

Finally cast on already!

I recommend using the long tail tubular cast on for this sweater since it’s very stretchy and this is a bottom up sweater. Last week I made two videos sharing how to do a long tail tubular cast on left and right handed. Since the long tail tubular cast on takes two setup rows to complete, the ribbing I have on the sweater’s hem is 7 rows. If you do the long tail tubular cast on, that would be 2 rows of cast on setup rows, plus 5 rows of k1, p1.

The Remy Pullover: Knit Along Day 1 Pattern

Sizing:
In the pattern, I’ve done the math for you already for standard XS-XXL sizes, but the beauty of knitting your own sweater is that you can do the math and get a custom fit. If you want help doing the math for another size, drop me a line at handsoccupied-at-gmail-dot-com or comment or join in on Ravelry.

XS – 33.25 inch hip / 23.25 inch waist / 31.5 inch bust
S – 35.5 / 25.5 / 33.5
M – 37.5 / 27.5 / 35.5
L – 40 / 29.5 / 37.5
XL – 43 / 33 / 40.5
XXL – 47 / 37 / 44

Abbreviations:
CO – cast on
k – knit
p – purl
LCx2 – work 4 stitches in a left leaning cable (2 stitches over 2 stitches)
LCx3 – work 6 stitches in a left leaning cable (3 stitches over 3 stitches)

Size XS

CO 140 sts
rows 1-7. k1, p1 around
row 8-9. k 16, p2, k4, p2 k6, p2, k4, p2, k 102
row 10. k 16, p2, LCx2, p2, LCx3, p2, LCx2, p2, k 102
rows 11-15. repeat row 8 (5 rows)
row 16. k 16, p2, LCx2, p2, k6, p2, LCx2, p2, k 102
rows 17-21. repeat row 8 (5 rows)
Repeat rows 10-21 to desired length.

Size S

CO 152 sts
rows 1-7. k1, p1 around
row 8-9. k 22, p2, k4, p2 k6, p2, k4, p2, k 108
row 10. k 22, p2, LCx2, p2, LCx3, p2, LCx2, p2, k 108
rows 11-15. repeat row 8 (5 rows)
row 16. k 22, p2, LCx2, p2, k6, p2, LCx2, p2, k 108
rows 17-21. repeat row 8 (5 rows)
Repeat rows 10-21 to desired length.

Size M

CO 160 sts
rows 1-7. k1, p1 around
row 8-9. k 26, p2, k4, p2 k6, p2, k4, p2, k 112
row 10. k 26, p2, LCx2, p2, LCx3, p2, LCx2, p2, k 112
rows 11-15. repeat row 8 (5 rows)
row 16. k 26, p2, LCx2, p2, k6, p2, LCx2, p2, k 112
rows 17-21. repeat row 8 (5 rows)
Repeat rows 10-21 to desired length.

Size L

CO 172 sts
rows 1-7. k1, p1 around
row 8-9. k 32, p2, k4, p2 k6, p2, k4, p2, k 118
row 10. k 32, p2, LCx2, p2, LCx3, p2, LCx2, p2, k 118
rows 11-15. repeat row 8 (5 rows)
row 16. k 32, p2, LCx2, p2, k6, p2, LCx2, p2, k 118
rows 17-21. repeat row 8 (5 rows)
Repeat rows 10-21 to desired length. (I’m a size L, and for me, that was repeating rows 10-21 a total of 8 times.)

Size XL

CO 184 sts
rows 1-7. k1, p1 around
row 8-9. k 38, p2, k4, p2 k6, p2, k4, p2, k 124
row 10. k 38, p2, LCx2, p2, LCx3, p2, LCx2, p2, k 124
rows 11-15. repeat row 8 (5 rows)
row 16. k 38, p2, LCx2, p2, k6, p2, LCx2, p2, k 124
rows 17-21. repeat row 8 (5 rows)
Repeat rows 10-21 to desired length.

Size XXL

CO 200 sts
rows 1-7. k1, p1 around
row 8-9. k 46, p2, k4, p2 k6, p2, k4, p2, k 132
row 10. k 46, p2, LCx2, p2, LCx3, p2, LCx2, p2, k 132
rows 11-15. repeat row 8 (5 rows)
row 16. k 46, p2, LCx2, p2, k6, p2, LCx2, p2, k 132
rows 17-21. repeat row 8 (5 rows)

Repeat rows 10-21 to desired length.

Phew! That was a lot! Again, let me know if you need support on anything by leaving a comment or joining the Ravelry group for this KAL. If you’re on Instagram or Twitter, don’t forget to share your in-progress sweaters with the hashtag #handsoccupiedkal.

The fall knit along is brought to you by Lion Brand Yarns. Check out Lion Brand on social media: Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Pinterest. If you’re still needing to buy your yarn, you can get 20% off Wool Ease yarn from Lion Brand with the coupon code handsoccupied14 at lionbrand.com! The code’s good through October 17. 

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Other posts in this series:

1. Announcing the fall knit along! The Remy Pullover
2. How to do a long tail tubular cast on (optional tutorial for the cast on I like for this pattern)
3. Do the math, get the fit / Fall Knit Along Day 1
4. Knit Along Tips, Tricks & An Official Schedule
5. Knit Along Day 2: Sleeve time!
6. Fall KAL Day 3: The Other Sleeve
7. How to attach sleeves / KAL Day 4
8. How to knit a raglan decrease / KAL Day 5
9. How to knit the collar / KAL Day 6
10. more coming soon!