David’s Drop Shoulder Sweater

For this project I used Latte Cakes by Caron yarn in the colorway Butter Cookie. I knit this project mostly in the round on size 5.5mm(US 9) circular needles by ChiaoGoo. Keep in mind as you read that I am a left handed knitter so some directions (such as decreases) may be reversed. I work from left to right across a pattern.

Materials Used

1. Approximately 2.5 balls of Latte Cakes by Caron Yarn in Butter Cookie (approximately 625G/1200 meters/1300 yards)
2. Size 5.5mm(US 9) ChiaoGoo circular needles in lengths 32″ and 24″
3. Size 4.5mm(US 7) Knitter’s Pride circular needles in length 32″ (I should have used a shorter length)
4. A plastic tapestry needle
5. Scissors
6. A significant other/friend/relative, bringing with them their favorite sweatshirt
7. Stitch markers
8. Row counter(s)

Techniques and Design Overview

I wanted to do something very simple this time. My last project was my first attempt at drafting my own raglan decreases and while it looked nice, the construction was a little difficult for me. David prefers slouchier sweaters anyways so I thought a drop shoulder would be perfect for him. I knit the body in the round until I divided the front and back for the armholes. From there I worked the front piece flat, doing some neck shaping. I left the live stitches at the top of the shoulders on the needle as well as the live stitches across the neck instead of binding them off. I then worked the back piece similarly to the front with more shallow neck shaping, again leaving the neck stitches and shoulder stitches live on the needle (at this point I was using two size 5.5mm needles). I thought it would be cool to do a kitchener stitch across the live stitches on the shoulders so that’s what I went with and I think it looks really nice. I slipped the live neck stitches to the smaller needles and picked up stitches along the decreases I had made for the shaping. I knit the collar up in the round. I then knit the sleeves separately in the round before sewing them to the body.

Below are some videos I used for reference while working on this project that I found really helpful

Gauge

I knit up a test swatch to get the gauge I would need to calculate different parts of the pattern

5.5 mm needles

• 3cm x 3cm stockinette – 5st and 7 rows
• 3cm x 3cm garter – 5st and 9 rows
• 10cm x 10cm stockinette – 17st and 24 rows

I took two measurements of the stockinette section so that I could do all of my calculations twice using both sets of numbers to make sure I wasn’t making any mistakes.

4.5 mm needles

• 3cm x 3cm K1, P1 rib – 8st and 8 rows

Step by Step

To start, I took David’s favorite sweatshirt which he liked the fit of. I took measurements across the bottom hem x2, across the hem above the ribbing section x2, across the front at the bottom of the armpits x2, across the neck opening, the height of the hem rib, the height from hem to armpit, the height from hem to shoulder, the height of the armpit, across the sleeve cuff x2, across the sleeve above the cuff x2, the sleeve cuff height, and the height from above the cuff to the armpit. I then decided to use 8cm for a neck depth in the front and 4cm for neck depth in the back.

Using the gauge above, I calculated that my cast on would be 200 st for a circumference of 120 cm. On 5.5mm needles, I cast on 200 stitches (placing a marker at the beginning of the round and after 100 stitches) and knit 14 rows of K2, P2 rib in the round. From there to the armpits, I would need to increase to a circumference of 136 cm over 38cm. This gave me the next set of directions. I reset my row counter to 0, knit 6 rows stockinette, (inc 1 st on each side of the stitch markers on the next row, knit 11 rows stockinette) x7. This gave me a total of 14 rows for the hem + 90 rows for the body = 104 rows for the body piece. The front and back pieces each had 114 stitches. I chose to use kfb for all of the increases in this project as that’s just what I’m comfortable with and I like the finished look.

Next, I kept the back stitches on the longer 5.5mm needle as I began to work the front piece back and forth on the shorter 5.5mm circular needle. I simply prefer these over using straight needles. I calculated that the front and back pieces would be 72 rows to the shoulder. To include the rows for neck shaping, the front would use 18 rows while the back would use 10. I reset my row counter and knit the front piece up to row 54. I knew I wanted a total circumference of 30cm for the neck, which was 50 st. I calculated that over 18 rows, I would decrease 2 st every other row, resulting in 32 st held for the neck in the front. 114 total stitches – 32 held for the neck = 82 stitches / 2 for the shoulders = 41 stitches.

I reset my row counter. I knit to 2 st before the end of the row (for the first row this is 39 st as each shoulder starts with 41 stitches), k2tog, turn, and purl across the back. I repeated these steps until the row counter measured 18 rows. I ended up with 32 stitches across the top of the shoulder. Here I cut the thread at a length of about 3x the width of the shoulder to use for the kitchener st later.

Some notes

• This last part I was knitting the left shoulder section, and a k2tog is a left leaning decrease for me as a left handed knitter
• At this point me needle looks all wonky holding the live stitches at the top of the shoulder as well as the live stitches I will use later for the collar and the remaining stitches for the other shoulder

To begin the right shoulder section, I counted 41 stitches in from the right side of the work. I reset my row counter to 0. I have in my notes that I did a ssk decrease, but I actually used a skpsso decrease. I slipped the first stitch knit-wise, joined the new yarn and knit the second stitch, then passed the slipped stitch over the last knit one. I knit to the end of the row, turn, purl across the back. I repeated these two rows until the row counter reached 18. I have a total of 32 stitches held on either side for the shoulders as well as 32 stitches held in the center for the collar. I cut the yarn at about 3x the width of the shoulder section to use for the kitchener stitch later.

Some notes

• Again, a skpsso is a right leaning decrease for me as a left handed knitter and this worked for me as I did the right shoulder piece
• At this point my needles look SUPER wonky
• I cut the thread at 3x the width of the shoulder for all shoulder sections because I didn’t know which thread I would use to do the kitchener stitch

The back worked up just like the front only with a shorter neck shaping section. I reset my row counter to 0, joined my yarn at the left side, and worked back and forth across the back piece for 62 rows. Here, I knew I had 10 rows for shaping and I would work 2 decreases on every other row. 50 total neck stitches – 10 decreased stitches for shaping = 40 stitches held on the back for the collar. 114 total stitches – 40 held stitches = 74 stitches / 2 for the shoulders = 37 stitches.

I reset my row counter to 0. I knit until the last two stitches in the row (in the first row this is 35 stitches in), k2tog, turn, purl across the back. I repeated these two rows until the row counter read 10. I cut the thread at 3x the width of the shoulder piece. I have 32 stitches held now for the left shoulder and 40 stitches in the middle for the collar on my back needle. I reset my row counter to 0. I counted in 37 stitches from the right side of the work to begin the right shoulder section. I slipped the first stitch knit-wise, joined the yarn and knit the next stitch, passed the slipped stitch over the last knit stitch, and knit to the end of the row. Turn, purl across the back. I repeated these two rows until the row counter read 10, cut the thread about 3x the width of the shoulder piece, and checked the time because at this point my flight was landing soon lol.

Next came the fun part, the kitchener across the shoulders. It had been a long time since I had last used the kitchener stitch. I had only used it before for a pair of socks I made probably 5 years ago now. I watched the reference video in the above section over and over until I had the rhythm down and could do it without needing to have it in front of me. Now it’s almost like an inner mantra that calms my mind. Knit off, purl on ,purl off, knit on. Front, front, back, back. I did this across both shoulders to seam them together invisibly.

I still had my held stitches for the collar so I worked that part next. I picked up 6 stitches on either side of the held stitches on the back piece. I picked up 10 stitches on either side of the held stitches on the front piece. I decided to join my yarn at the right shoulder seam. Switching to 4.5 mm needles, I worked in the round in a K1, P1 rib for 8 rows. I decreased 2 stitches on row 8 because I thought I would be knitting it up further but David ended up liking that height so I left it there. I bound off using the stretchy bind off shown in the video above.

On to the sleeves!

I cast on 44 stitches on the 5.5 mm needles for a circumference of 26 cm, placing a marker at the beginning of the round. I worked in a K1, P1 rib for 14 rows. I calculated that I would need to increase to a circumference of 60 cm over 48 cm. This math wasn’t working out in a fun and even way so I used the below equations to calculate two different rates to increase at that would work. I knew that over the next 114 rows I would need to increase to 102 stitches.

I did my math wrong in my notes omg

I’m going to continue this post with the numbers I SHOULD have been using instead of the numbers I DID use.

102 total stitches – 44 cast on stitches = 58 stitches to increase / 2 stitches per increase row = 29 increase rows.

114 / 29 = 3 remainder 27

So here I know that the first increase section will be done every 3rd row and the next increase section will be done every 4th row.

For those who love math like me, these are the formulas I used:

• 114 = 3x + 4y
• x + y = 29

I used this to calculate that I would increase every 3rd row for 6 rows (so twice) and then increase every 4th row for 108 rows for a total of 114 rows.

I reset my row counter to 0. I increased on either side of the stitch marker, then knit 2 more rows. I repeated these two steps once more for a total of 6 rows. I reset my row counter to 0. I increased on either side of the stitch marker, then knit 3 more rows. I repeated these two steps until the row counter read 108. I bound off the first sleeve and set aside to knit the second sleeve the same way.

I referenced the above video to learn how to seam together the sleeves to the body of the sweater in a drop shoulder construction.

Viola!! A sweater!!

The bad math

If you were curious, this is the bad math from my notes. It appears I used only half then number of stitches from my cast on when calculating how many more stitches I would need to increase, resulting in my sleeves having 22 extra stitches when finished.

102 – 22 = 80 / 2 = 40 increase rows

114 / 40 = 2 remainder 34

• 114 = 2x + 3y
• x + y = 40

I calculated that I would increase every other row for 12 rows and then increase every 3rd row for another 102 rows.

The result

I am SO HAPPY I could cry. Another successful sweater self designed by me. This just gives me so much hope and energy to keep trying. I never used to want to make sweaters because the whole ordeal seamed so daunting. Would I ever finish? Would it fit right? Being able to finish even basic sweaters like this at all (and in 2 weeks!!) just makes me proud of myself and give me that encouragement to keep trying 🙂 Check out my Instagram post below with more pictures of me modeling the finished product before I give it to David!

Tell me about a project that made you even more motivated

Tell me about something you finished, either just how you wanted it or far from the thing you had imagined, that gave you the motivation to keep going and keep pushing to do more 🙂