Knit for Kids Tips

At the link at the right, the Knit for Kids program offers a basic, plain vanilla sweater pattern. It certainly is easy to knit, being almost entirely "mindless knitting" (i.e., stuff I can knit with my eyes closed or while watching TV and never missing a thing). There is one major drawback for me, though, which is seaming.

I truly loathe seaming. I move all the way to detesting it if it is unnecessary. So, naturally, I'm creating essentially the same sweater, but in as seamless a way as possible, by knitting circularly as much as I can, and picking up where possible.

Here are two finished sweaters I made last week. In order to change a flat sweater pattern to a circular pattern, all I did was cast on double the number of stitches per side, putting a marker at the beginning and one at the halfway point. I then knit up to the suggested length and put one-half of the stitches on a holder.


I then cast on, with a very loose "knitting on" cast-on, the suggested number of stitches for the sleeve on one side. Then I knit back across the row, and did the same on the other side. I continued knitting in garter stitch until the depth of the T-bar reached the recommended length.

I considered leaving the stitches live and picking up and doing the same on the other side, but that would mean lot of grafting to close the shoulder seams. I don't mind grafting as much as I mind seaming, but, still...! So, here's what one side of a current KfK WIP (work in progress) looks like. When I finish this side, then I'll bind off completely across the top edge, pick up stitches beginning on one sleeve, M1 and K1 in the gap between the sleeve and the body, pick up all body stitches and then do the M1 thing and pick up the remaining stitches on the other sleeve from the knitted cast on of the first side. On my way back across the row, I'll K2tog at the previously added stitch to keep the stitch count accurate. This way, once the second "bodice" is complete, all I have to do is sew the shoulder seams. It all works out nice and even, with very little fuss!

I'm not crazy about the pattern, though; something in me is opposed to T sweaters, when I know that raglans give the best fit with the least bunching and best range of motion for the wearer. Doing a top down raglan or top down round-yoke sweater is just as easy, has no seams and just a little grafting at the underarms. Knit for Kids will accept any sweater, in any material, so I'll probably wind up pandering to my inner knitting snob and doing other types. I think they developed this pattern (or borrowed it from Oxfam) because it's easy for newbies to make.

I have to say, though, this is a terrific stash buster. All that garter stitch at the yoke/sleeves really sucks up the yardage. I'm going to try to work my way through all the yarn that I bought and haven't used for those large projects that I dream of (and buy for) on occasion. Honestly, I have probably enough yarn for 10 more large size sweaters of this ilk in acrylic, and I don't even want to think about how many wool sweaters I could make with the contents of my embarassingly large stash. Hmmm. I think I'll set a goal of finishing 10 sweaters total by years end to send to KfK. That should make a noticeable dent in the stash!