Six Days and Counting... Sneak Peek and Tutorial

Top-Down Raglan using Percentage System, in progress! Recipe coming soon...
Knit in Berroco Blackstone Tweed (the yummiest tweed I've ever met...) on US size 5 and 7's.

Ravelers can see it here.

I went into the bedroom closet the other day to discover the light on, a chair pulled up to the shelving, clothes askew, and a corner suspiciously ripped on a strategically placed package...at the very tippy-top of the shelf.  As recent as last year I could have questioned my older of the two, but seeing as how he's literally grown a foot since last Christmas and can reach the top shelf as easily as I can,  I instead (through intense deductive reasoning...) turned my attention to a certain six year old who is always complaining that she is still the shortest in her class.

As of today we have 180 pounds of dumbbells shoved against the door of the exercise room to hopefully vanquish her unending attempts to see "what the heck is behind this door?" And I have hidden things in so many places around the house that I had to compose a map to remember where I've put it all.  The child is unrelenting!

And so here I am, doing the very thing that she's so desperately trying to do herself... giving a little sneak peek!  I've been working for a few weeks on a Christmas present that is thankfully on it's last sleeve.  And after working and reworking the turned hem on the body I knew I had to have a better plan for the matching sleeves.  I thought I would share it with you!

It's a simple percentage top-down raglan (pattern recipe and modifications to come...) with turned cuffs and hem instead of a ribbing.  Where the trouble arose for me was that I have never worked a turned cuff at the end of the body or sleeve, but only at the beginning.  Picking up stitches from the wrong side and staying on the correct ridge can be a real booger... so I came up with a simple solution that I'm sure people much wiser than me have been doing for years! But here it is...

make a guide.

Shocking as that may be (ha, ha) this was a "Eureka!" moment for me. 

When working a sweater in stockinette and coming to the end of the body or sleeve work one purl turning row then change to your contrasting color for the inside of the hem.  Knit this to the length you want your hem to be (I knit 2 inches for the body, and 1.5 inches for each cuff).  Then using a long strand of waste yarn, thread your tapestry needle through the garter ridge just above the row you will be joining your hem to the body and binding off.

Doing this helps keep you on the right path (literally) and you won't find your hem wandering about your sweater (found this out the hard way!).  With this guide I could easily pick up the garter "bump" below this round and then bind off my hem using the three-needle bind off.

After binding off and checking my work on the right side I simply removed the waste yarn and had a tidy bind off that, thankfully, was straight!

I'll post more photos, yarn info, and pattern modifications for the top-down raglan after it's been gifted.  But this has truly been a joy to knit.  It's just a bunch of tweedy stockinette in the round... but honestly... what could be better?  Hopefully this tutorial will help when you want to work a turned hem for top-down sweaters.  It's been a life-saver for me!

Happy Knitting!


----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kelly-ann (on ravelry)  DATE: 12/19/2009 01:07:25 PM What a handsome sweater! I love your idea about putting in waste yarn when doing the hem - so simple and logical, but it never occurred to me. Thanks for sharing ;)
----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jodi DATE: 12/19/2009 01:47:44 PM This sweater looks so cozy and wonderful! Thanks for the hem tip.
----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: holly  DATE: 12/21/2009 12:02:02 PM That sweater looks lovely! Earthy and warm!