The Knitting Architect
Application of Charting Principles—Necks
At first sight it will appear that all we have learned so far is to chart a round neck pullover. Right? Wrong!
Let's see why. The best way to approach it is to chart a different sweater. Let's say a V neck pullover with long, set in sleeves. The back of the V neck pullover is identical to the back of the round neck pullover. We already know how to do the back. The sleeves of the V neck pullover are identical to the sleeves of the round neck. We already know how to do the sleeves. The front of the V neck sweater is identical to that of the round neck up to the point where the neck starts. The V neck usually starts at the height of the armhole. I say normally because it could also start at the belly button or anywhere you choose. To make sure we understand, we are going to chart the whole front.
Cast on 60 stitches on #8 needles and Rib K1, P1 for 2 1/2". Change to 10 1/2 needles and stockinette stitch. Work even until piece measures 17 inches.
Everything is the same up to this point. We now must make our underarm bind offs and at the same time we must begin to shape our V neck. The V shaping is started at precisely the middle of the row. 30 stitches on one side and 30 stitches on the other. The division is made on the same row as the first bind off and it is made as follows:
Bind off 3 stitches at beginning of row and work 27 stitches. (27 + 3 = 30 sts. of first side). With a second ball of yarn work remaining 30 stitches. Bind off 3 stitches at beginning of row.
We have done our bind offs. We have created our division. We must now make our decreases on the arm sides and shape our neck.
Decrease 1 stitch each arm edge every other row 3 times. AT THE SAME TIME: Shape neck.
The question is how. Let's see what we know. The back of neck is 20 stitches. The armhole is 8 inches. 8 x 4 (row gauge = 32 rows. What this indicated to me is that we have 32 rows in which to eliminate 20 stitches. These 20 stitches must be eliminated 1/2 on the right side and 1/2 on the left side of neck. For the sake of symmetry we decrease on both sides of the neck at the same time. So we must eliminate the 20 stitches in 20/2 = 10 steps.
The next question is how often must we make these decreases. We take the number of rows, 32, and divide it by the number of decreases. 32/10 = 3.2. Always round the number down. In this case it is 3 rows. It follows:
Decrease 1 stitch on each neck edge every third row 10 times. Work even until armhole is 8 inches. Bind off 7 stitches at beginning of the next 4 rows.
We are done. To figure out the number of stitches to be picked up around the neck, use the formula used for the round neck. If you notice that we are not spending much time on finishing it is so because we are concerned here with principles general enough to apply to all charting. The fact that we use very specific examples to demonstrate these principles does not limit in anyway their broad applications.
A scoop neck pullover is even easier. Not only are the back and sleeves identical to those of a round neck pullover, but so is the front with one exception only: The scoop neck shaping start usually 3 inches above the armhole. Everything else is identical. It reads as follows:
Neck shaping: When armhole measures 3 inches, work 17 stitches. With second ball of yarn, bind off center 14 stitches and work other 17 stitches. Decrease 1 stitch on each neck edge every other row 3 times.
Everything is identical to the round neck pullover. The only thing that changed was the height at which the neck shaping started.
The square neck pullover is identical to the scoop neck except for one little difference. The neck shaping across the front is done in one step. There are no decreases done on the neck edges, just one bind off equal to the number of stitches left for back of neck. It reads as follows:
Neck shaping: When armhole measures 3 inches, work 14 stitches. With second half of yarn bind off center 20 stitches and work other 14 stitches. Work even until armhole measures 8 inches, etc.
A boat neck pullover is the easiest to do of all the necks because it requires no shaping at ll. The front and the back of the sweater are knitted up in two identical pieces. These two pieces are identical to the back of the pullovers we have done thus far. The only difference is that up to now we shaped the shoulders of the pullover we learned to chart. The boat neck has no shoulder shaping. It would be written as follows:
Back: Cast on 60 sts. on #8 needle and rib K1, P1 for 2 1/2". Change to 10 1/2 needle and stockinette stitch. Work even until piece is 17 inches. Bind off 3 sts. at beginning of next 2 rows. Decrease 1 stitch each end every other row 3 times. Work even until armhole measures 8 inches. Bind off all stitches straight across the row.
Front: Identical to back. Repeat from start.
Sleeves are the same as for the other pullovers we learned to chart.
The thing to remember is that for a boat neck we do not rib around the neck. We leave an opening 8 to 10 inches wide and crochet around it.
