OJ - drop-sleeve pullover

Every so often, there is a request on knitting boards such as knittyboard.com for an easy-to-make sweater. This is one of the easiest. The pattern itself is such that it can be made with almost any yarn and in almost any size. The sweater pictured is the 3rd sweater I ever made. The second sweater I ever made was to the same pattern. But, it's no longer with us. I accidently washed it on too high a heat setting and because of its acrylic content, it blossomed to twice its original size. The sweater pictured is too big for me. I made it before I learned to adjust a pattern. The stripes are optional. (There are a lot of major changes in the pattern below from the original pattern.)

Generic Drop-Sleeve Boat-Neck Pullover

The garment front and back are essentially large rectangles with ribbing at both top and lower edges. These are knit first. Then the top (leaving an opening for the neck) and the sides (leaving an armhole opening on each side) are seamed up. Last, stitches are picked up around each armhole to begin the sleeves. (I use 2 circular needles of the same size to make the garment.)

The pullover is named after a cat of ours who used to help me knit by lying on top of the yarn.

1. Calculate your gauge. Then decided how wide around you want the sweater to be.

2. Calculate the sweater circumference.

A gauge of 4 sts and 6 rows per inch and a width of 36”.would give 4 x 36 = 144 sts.
Half of these belong to the front and half to the back – 72 sts for the front.

Because of the ribbing pattern at the top, we want an odd number of sts on both front and back.

Add a st to give 73 sts for the front.

3. Then decide on how many sts to cast on for the front. Because of the nature of ribbing in general, cast on approximately 10% fewer sts

90 % of 73 is 65.7. So, cast on 66 sts.

4. Work k1, p1 ribbing for approximately 2". The knit 1 at the beginning and end of each row, except the first will make seaming easier (although some people prefer starting each row with a slip 1).

Row 1: K1, *p1, k1* 32 times, k1
Repeat Row 1 approximately 14 times. (edited: 13 Dec 2007)

5. Increase evenly across to an odd number of stitches.

Increase from 66 sts to 73 sts across.
K1, *p1, kfb, (p1, k1) 4 times*, repeat * to * across row, ending with k1
kfb is knit into the front and then the back of a stitch)

6. Knit body of sweater. (Until now the sweater has no right/wrong side.)

Row 1 (RS): K73
Row 2 (WS): K1, p71, k1
Repeat these rows until the sweater is 3 - 4" inches less than the desired length. End with a RS row.

7. Work top ribbing for 3 - 4". Bind off later.

Row 1: K1,*k1, p1* 35 times, k2
Row 2: K1, *p1, k1* 36 times
Repeat Rows 1 and 2 -- 11 times, approximately. Place sts on scrap yarn or a spare needle. Leave long enough tail to bind off 49 sts (2/3 of the sts).

8. Work sweater back the same as the front. (I worked back and front at the same time.)

9. Seam up garment top edge, leaving enough room for the neck. (Try on the garment with the top pinned together about a fourth of the way from each shoulder.)

Place garment right sides together. There will be a tail of yarn at each shoulder. Starting at one of the shoulders, bind off 20 sts from front and back (at the same time) using a 3-needle bind off. Then bind off 33 more sts from the part of the garment furthest away (using perhaps the decrease bind off). There are now 20 sts left on the back needle. Repeat this process starting at the other shoulder and the other yarn tail.

10. Seam up garment sides, leaving room for the sleeves. (Try on the garment to help decided how big a hole to leave for the sleeves.)

You can stop at this point and weave in all loose ends. The result is a nice-looking shell.

11. Pick up stitches to begin knitting a sleeve from the armhole down, starting at the bottom of the armhole. Because of the gauge, pick up 4 sts for every 6 rows on the armhole opening. Also, pick up an extra stitch at the garment side seam and the garment top seam. The total number doesn't matter, just so the same number of stitches are picked up when doing the other sleeve.

12. Knit the sleeves. Mark the starting point. This is the beginning of all rounds. For a tapered sleeve, make decreases every inch and a half, approximately.

Rounds 1-8: Knit around
Round 9: K1, k2tog, k to last 3 sts of round, ssk, k1
Repeat these 9 rounds until sleeve is desired length.

13. Make sleeve ribbing and bind off.

Round 1: *K1, p2 tog, k1, p1* around, ending either with k1, p1 or k1, p2tog
OR -- Round 1: *k1, p2tog* around, ending with k1, p1 or k1, p2tog or k1, p3tog
Round 2: *K1, p1* around
Repeat Round 2 for about an inch and a half. Bind off.

14. Make second sleeve the same as the first.

Tags: boatneck pullover knit shell

Tubey variation

I love Tubey, but I wanted a higher neckline. So, here's my variation of Tubey with an underarm seam and a square garter stitch neckline. The neckline goes down further in back, but not as far in front as the original. I also put in fewer stripes. The underarm seam plus the neckline construction make the neck front higher.

Gauge: 4 sts and 6 rows per inch
Materials: This pullover used 1 skein Dark Sage Red Heart Super Saver (7 oz, 364 yds), 1 skein Espresso Caron (7 oz, 355 yds), and 1 skein Claret Red Heart Super Saver (7 oz, 364 yds).

Notes: I was intending to have the striping on both the TUBE and SHRUG SLEEVE to be essentially the same. However, it turned out that the Espresso was running out as I was working on the TUBE (I'd already made one stripe of Espresso per sleeve.), and so I decided to have Claret for the bottom half of each sleeve instead of Espresso.

I made the SHRUG SLEEVEs a little bigger around at the top than I would if this were a raglan – in fact, by about an inch . It was an accident, but I'm glad that I did for the fit at the shoulder.

I use s1 instead of sl1 for slip one to avoid confusing myself. (Also, unless otherwise stated, I used a single cast on. I've been using it for dishcloths and like how unobtrusive it is.)

Where the numbers come from: The important numbers in this pattern are the number of sts around for the TUBE (176 sts, which is divisible by 8), the number of sts around at the top of the SHRUG SLEEVE (60 sts), and the length of the underarm cast on (11 sts). (The underarm cast on will work as small as zero sts but shouldn't be any larger than around 1/15th of the number of sts for the TUBE part.) All the other numbers come from these. The number of sts cast on for the SHRUG MIDDLE is 60 – 11 or 49. Take 176, divide it by 4, multiply the result by 3, and then subtract twice 11. This gives the number of rows for the SHRUG MIDDLE (110 rows). (Also, 110 plus twice 11 is the 132, which is the circumference of the TUBE, before the increase rnd.) These 110 rows are divided into thirds after subtracting the 16 rows for the side neck edgings, with 30 rows for the sides and 34 for the middle (which are all divisible by 2). The cast on for the SHRUG MIDDLE (continued) is 17, which is half of 34. The “k25” in Rows 32, etc. of the SHRUG MIDDLE is just over half of 49. The “21” in Rows 38 and 73 is 4 less than 25.

Directions:
SHRUG MIDDLE:
CO49 (using a crochet provisional cast on) – in Dark Sage
Row 1 (RS): s1, k48
Row 2 (WS): s1, p48
Repeat Rows 1 and 2. Then:
Row 31 (RS) s1, k across, end w k2tog, k1
Row 32 (WS): s1, k25, p to end
Repeat Rows 31 and 32. Then:
Row 37 (RS) s1, k across, end w k2tog, k1 (45 sts)
Row 38 (WS) s1 to begin BO of 21 sts, k4, p19 (24 sts – the last bind off leaves a loop on the needle)
Row 39 (RS) s1, k23
Row 40 (WS) s1, k4, p19
Repeat Rows 39 and 40. Then:
Row 73 (RS) s1, k23, CO 21 (45 sts)
Row 74 (WS) s1, k25, p to end
Row 75 (RS) s1, k across, end k row w kfb (an increase made by knitting in the front and then back of a st), k1
Repeat Rows 74 and 75. Then:
Row 82 (WS): s1, p48
Repeat Rows 1 and 2. Then:
Row 111 (RS): s1, k48, co 11 (60 sts)

SHRUG SLEEVE: Start knitting in the round.
Rnds 1-8: k around
Rnd 9: k around, end w ssk, k1.
Rnd 10: k1, k2tog, k to end
Repeat Rnds 1-10 to 50 sts,. Then knit without decreasing to cuff, changing colors as desired.
Rnds 1-45 in Dark Sage
Rnds 46 – 51 in Espresso
Rest in Claret – for me (with short arms), to 91st rnd.

Cuff:
*K4, k2tog, k4* to end of round, ending w knit sts
P around then k around 3 times, then purl around once more (to match the garter st neckline). Bind off. (I used a single bind off, knitting into each purl st to bind off.) -- The cuff edging matches the neck edging.

Other Shrug Sleeve:
Carefully undo crochet sts and put the other sides of the CO sts onto circ needle. Knit these sts. Then co 11 (or possibly 12) using single cast on. (60 sts on needle) (Sometimes this provisional cast on gives me the number originally cast on, sometimes one fewer.)
Follow directions for SHRUG SLEEVE.

SHRUG MIDDLE (continued):
Starting at the right side of the neck opening (the last st of Row 73), pick up and knit 1 st, CO 17 using single cast on, pick up and knit the equivalent st on the other side of the neck opening (the first “st” of Row 38). (Pick up and knit the sts here by pulling the yarn through both loops of the slip st edging from WS to RS.) Turn.
*Slip 1, k across, pick up and knit one st (the st below the one previously picked up). Turn.*
Repeat * to * until there are 27 sts on needle.

TUBE:
Slip 1, k26, pick up and knit 14 sts from the left front of the garment, pick up and knit 11 sts from the left sleeve, pick up and knit 55 sts from the garment back, pick up and knit 11 sts from the right sleeve, pick up and knit 14 sts from the right front of the garment. (132 sts)

(To pick up and knit for the front and back, first pick up the sts by sliding, for example, a size 3 circular needle through the back/WS loops of the sts to be picked up, count the loops to make sure it's the correct number, then knit the loops off of the smaller needle untwisted. To pick up and knit for the underarm, identify the sts that were cast on, then use a crochet hook to pull the yarn from the WS to the RS through the tops of the sts.)

Then:
*k1, m1p, k2* around (176 sts)
(To m1p, I did *k1, yo, k2* in this round and then *k1, p the yo twisted, k2* in the next. Then:)
*k1, p1, k2* around (176 sts)

Continue this k3p1 ribbing until garment is desired length.

Change colors as desired, making changes under right armhole.
Rnds 1 – 14 in Dark Sage
Rnds 15 – 21 in Espresso
Rnds 22 – 32 in Claret
Rest in Espresso (for me, to 78th rnd, but I'm short)
Bind off. (I used a single bind off, knitting the knit sts and purling the purl sts.)
edited to re-add pictures to directions