Sunday, June 17, 2012

A Short (Row) Discussion

Let's talk briefly about short rows (again). I can't say I really understand them in most contexts - they still hurt my brain (which has been going through some migrainous challenges this week...) - but I do get where they're coming from with the shawl collar.

In fact, as happens so frequently, a mistake (costing me hours and ripped-back yarn), recently explicated how they work to shape a collar.

OK, they're not actually adding depth to the collar, as I see it, though I suppose you could view it that way. They're acting like notches in a sewn curve (i.e. the notches you clip into a bust curve of a princess seam to get it to lie properly). They're giving shape to the collar by adding little pie-shaped wedges around the outer curve.

When you knit you can't clip your yarn to achieve the proper turn of fabric and drape, so you have to introduce appropriate "shaped-space" into the construction of your fabric.

Here's the very general, unadorned anatomy of the shawl collar short row:
  • Row 1: You knit over to a specified stitch, wrap around the next stitch, turn your work around.
  • Row 2: Now you knit back to where you started at the beginning of row 1. You have a weird little row that doesn't actually affix to anything, except by a wrapped loop. This is the short row.
  • Row 3: You knit back to that wrapped stitch, pick it up and keep going till you get to the end of the "real" row. At this point you've introduced an extra wedge of a row that doesn't actually add to your row count, though it does shape your garment.
All things being equal (and I can think of how this could be proved wrong, but I'm being general here) a wrap and turn that happens farther into the collar ribbing (closer to the side of the rib where the stitches will be sewn to the collar) will yield a broader pie-shaped wedge.

If you want a long rectangle of (ribbed) fabric to mold into a shawl-curve, you'll need to introduce wedges of different widths (i.e. "notches") at various intervals in its construction.

Does this make any sense to y'all, or is this the kind of thing that needs to be seen to be believed?

6 comments:

  1. Oh man - I need a drawing, lol. (I keep forgetting that your shawl-collar is knitted vertically, as opposed to the one I've made, which was horizontal. My brain melts trying to understand the difference, lol.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wanted to make a drawing but it was beyond me with the headache! I can't even imagine the horizontals. I think we each have to try both methods and then put our heads together!

      Delete
  2. It sounds almost dart-like in a way. I've done a few socks that have short row heels, so it makes sense to me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is like a dart. I don't know why I didn't describe it that way, except, when short rows are described as bust darts that completely confuses me.

      Delete
  3. Short rows and lace patterns both make my head hurt! I am currently making the Agatha cardigan (on Ravelry), which has both. I would describe myself as an advanced beginner, I think this pattern is more suited to an intermediate knitter, oh well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, I agree! Lace gets me as well! Good to know that the Agatha does them both. I'll be very careful before taking it on :-)

      Delete