Cabin Fever Sisters Knit

I know this stuff can make your head hurt. It's so much easier to do than it is to explain. But I AM SO EXCITED. I think this is going to work. I will try to explain . . . more techy talk.

In a regular top down you increase at the beginning and end of 4 sections of the sweater: the shoulder section, Back, second shoulder section and the Front. That makes 8 increases every second round. To make the Front lower than the Back of neck, you need to put more rows across the back of neck - in essence you are raising the back of neck in order to lower the Front of neck. How to accomplish this is tricky and there are several ways to do it.

For a moment go back to a regular crew neck sweater, for the collar you pick up stitches across the back of neck and then pick up stitches for the front of neck. There are a lot more stitches picked up for the front of the crew neck collar, right? How can we duplicate this process when we are working from the top down beginning with knitting the collar. The new way I have come up with, and I really think this is going to fly, is to cast on extra stitches on the front of the collar. Then work the short rows: work across the the shoulder, back of neck, second shoulder and down the Front a little bit, TURN, purl back across shoulder, Back and second shoulder to other side of Front and work down the Front a little bit, TURN. Continue to work across the back of the sweater, working down a little further on the Front each time.

So what I get is a Front of neck with only a couple of rows on it.

And a back of neck with lots of rows on it. Which raises the back and lowers the Front. The new trick I figured out is to put an extra number of stitches in the collar for the Front of neck and then work the increases in the shoulder section, back of neck section and second shoulder section ONLY - 6 increases worked. No increases are worked in the Front section at all, the number of stitches in the Front section stays the same. So if the back of neck has 30 sts in it and the Front of neck has 42 sts, I could work the short rows and make the increases in both shoulder sections and in the back of neck section until the back of neck catches up to the Front of neck. When the Back of neck also has 42 stitches I stop the short rows. Ta, da the Back has 12 more rows than the Front so the Front is lower and both Front and Back have 42 sts. It works!

Here's a close up. The shoulder (on right side of photo) has sts increased in it and the Front (on the left) has no increases. I have written all this down and it still makes sense. I am delighted. Let the stripes begin.

-Deb