Seetaa no Monogatari Part 3

This week is all about making enough of the yoke (what I've been doing) so that I can work on dividing my stitches between the sleeves and the body (i.e. by the end of this week, I should be ready to do the sleeves and the remaining body portion (if not already working on those portions by the end of the week)).

Well, how do you figure out how much more one needs to make, you ask?  You put your yoke on yourself and then measure the seam stitch.  Just follow along the seam stitch until you're at your underarm.  

When I follow mine, my underarm is at 5 inches.  But, what I really need to knit to is 7 inches.  Why 7 inches, you ask?  Because, while my actual underarm is at 5 inches, I'd like to be able to move my arms around while wearing my sweater (so I can put up my hair or reach for something, stuff like that).  Thus, I need to make it a few more inches than my actual underarm measurement.

So, how much more do I need to make?  Well, when I last left off (at Part 2.75), I was at 24 rows, which was at 3-3.5 inches.  After class yesterday, I managed to make a few more rows so I was at 4 inches.  I managed another inch today, which finally puts me at 5 inches (that's a total of 41 rows to date).  

Now, I just need to make 2 more (very long) inches and I'll check again then to see if that'll be enough "give" for me (I need it to give enough but I do want fitted sleeves).  

If it is "just right", then I'll divide the stitches up for the sleeves and body.  Then decide which I'm going to work on first (a sleeve or the body portion).  In theory, the calculations for the:

• Sleeve is circumference of your bent elbow * stitches per inch.  For me, that means that I'm looking for a total of 55 stitches (10.5" * 5.25).
• Body is your desired body circumference * stitches per inch.  For me that means, I'm looking for a total of 181 stitches (34.5" * 5.25).

This means, that it's very important to know if your gauge is still the same!

So, ... I re-measured everything (from up closer to the neckline to the lowest portion of my yoke to date) and found that my gauge was 5.75 stitches per inch (23 stitches per 4") closer to my neckline and (thankfully!) 5.25 stitches per inch (21 stitches per 4") at the bottom of the yoke.  I was extra paranoid about measuring everything so, not only did I purchase a metal Boye gauge ruler from Kim (I thought I was flexing my plastic one and as such possibly miscounting), I even had my (poor) Hubby count stitches to make sure I was counting correctly. Who knew that counting stitches were going to be so hard and tricky! :P  I e-mailed my results to Kim to see if I was still on the right track. 

I hope so as I wouldn't be a very happy camper if I had to rip it out (again)! :P  (Although I'd do it because why put in all this effort if I'm not going to be happy with the fit of the sweater - I do want to wear it after all ... and, this is the whole point of taking this class (to learn how to make a sweater that fits me) and taking on NaNoSweMo (to help provide me a goal of actually completing the sweater)! :) Oh, for the record, I've only made ~5,310 stitches ... that's a little more than 10% of the total goal of 50,000 stitches.)

More up-dates to come! :)  Hopefully, I can finish the next 2" in the next 2 days and that I have enough stitches to divvy everything up to start on the sleeves and body! :)