Knitting Without Tears

That is actually a title of a book by Elizabeth Zimmerman, a wonderful book.  When I saw that title several years ago, I knew I had to have it! 

I started knitting when I was 11 years old as part of my church instruction in the Merrie Miss group of girls in Primary in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Since I had already learned to crochet, knitting came pretty easy to me.  But following patterns was always a struggle-- it was tedious and time consuming.  Often I ended up with strange loops in every other row.  So I learned how to make things without patterns, which was rather limiting (hats, scarves, the like.)  Elizabeth Zimmerman taught me how to make many more things after I found this book!

Turns out that I learned to knit differently than most Americans-- I learned to knit the German way.  That explained why I had funny loops in those odd rows when I followed patterns.  Americans wrap their yarn, while Germans grab it.  Also, Americans poke into the left side of the loop, while Germans go through the center of the loop.  I think German knitting is faster, but it requires adapting patterns to avoid that pesky loop.

My favorite part of this book is the chapter on knitting seamless sweaters (Page 64.)  Zimmerman explains in the chapter how to mathematically calculate the number of stitches required to make the sweater based on size, gender and age.  Starting at the waist and knitting up to the neck, I loved how she described reducing at the shoulder as going quickly, like the barn was burning down.  She's a great read.

Making these sweaters will require the use of double pointed needles for the arms and flexible needles for the body.  Once the sleeves and body are knitted up to the armpit, they are joined onto the flexible needles leaving some to be woven at the armpit.  A few more inches are knitted upward, then the decreasing begins until you reach your desired neckline, when you can cast off.  It makes perfect sense and a lovely sweater.  

Here are a few of the sweaters I have made over the years using this pattern.

This was my first attempt.  I had to see if it would work before I got too excited.  This turned out great except that the neck was really tight for a small child.  I loved watching the patterns emerge with the veriegated yarn.  Seeing that Zimmerman's pattern worked, I tried other things, like putting a button band in front.  Worked great!

This one with a button band and purple stripes went fast.  I loved trying the raglan at the shoulder instead of the random decrease in the first.  My daughter wore this sweater often. 

I tried a flower bud row at the neck for interested, which produced this fun sweater and hat.  The hat went first so I could see how the buds would look.  My daughter wore this often too.  This is using the original random decrease again.  Note that I didn't use double pointed needles on the sleeves for this one.  I thought I'd see if the seam under the arm would be a problem.  Of course it wasn't a problem, it just looked nicer without the seam, so I went back to the complete seamless look.  It was worth the double pointed needles.

These newborn blessing day sweaters are just a couple of the ones I made to give away as baby gifts.  The v-neck was made by decreasing it at the neckline button band as I was decreasing the shoulder Raglan style.  Then I picked up the stitches across the center front on both sides of the needles to get the button band and collar done up together.  I really like how it turned out.

I made this to solve the problem of car seats over baby coats.  Note that the sweater opens at the legs to allow the buckle to meet at the crotch.  Note the unusual pattern that appeared on the seamed arms so I could get that unique pattern with the veriegated yarn, although it didn't make that pattern in the body.

This is buttoned the way Paige usually wore this sweater-- as a pram.  But the seat belt can still be inserted through the button band.

Back view of sweater.  Note that in adding the hood, I made rib knit stitches at the neck so that it would hug her neck better without having to decrease and increase again.  

This is a detail of the backside button band, which allows the car seat buckle to get through the legs of the coat.  Note that I used rib knit at the toes to pull in the bottom, like a drawstring does on fabric prams. 

I hope this inspires others to try this different approach to knitting without using patterns, hence no crying.  Especially if you are a German knitter like me!