Monday 13 September 2010

increases

So I was just listening to a podcast and the knitter was talking about working out how to increase evenly over x stitches and they were saying that you just divide over the number of stitches and do that, but that's not exactly even (unless you're working in the round, for this I'm talking in the flat)

with 4 increases over 20 stitches, - is a stitch V is an increase, in this instance a lifted increase

-----V-----V-----V-----V with an increase at the end of the stitches

now if you divide by five, or number of increases+1 you will have

----V----V----V----V---- still with four increases but this time you have nice, evenly placed across things without an awkward stitch to sew up later!

But, you say, what about awkward numbers of stitches like six increases over 30?

30/7 is 4.2857.... or four stitches and two remaining so I would put five stitches either end and then four between increases

-----V----V----V----V----V----V-----

or put the two extra in the middle

----V----V----V------V----V----V----

or offset

----V----V-----V----V-----V----V----

though the thing to remember this is all dependent on the type of increase you do. If the increase involves the previous stitch, Kf&b for example, the top one would have been k3k1f&b etc.

So how do you cope with increases, with that wonderfully vague increase evenly over the row instructions?

2 comments:

  1. Interesting question. I think I mostly do what you described with the 30/7 example above.

    The Blessed Elizabeth Zimmermann advises the opposite: subtract 1 from the number of increases, then divide any remainder evenly to put at each end. Which is basically the same idea as yours, except that if it divides evenly you end up with an increase stitch right at the end, which I don't like.

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  2. yeah Leannich, I often find that increasing right on the edge is not great for seaming.
    What was really killing me about this was this was being talked about on a MATH for Knitters podcast!

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