Welcome to I’ll Knit (& Spin!) If I want To! I asked y’all to send in some of your questions (from everything from fiber arts, to designing and on!) so I could put together a little video for y’all every Friday doing my best to answer your questions!
1. Hi Andrea, I love all of your patterns and look forward to your podcast episodes each week! I was wondering if you could give advice on how and when to lengthen yolk depth in sweaters. I'm currently working on your nurtured pattern with some very special yarn, and want to ensure a great fit, but I'm unsure about how to add length to the yolk on a bottom up raglan. And could you explain why yolk depth might sometimes need to be adjusted? It seems to mostly be a thing for me with raglan or circular yolk sweaters. For instance, I love my drk everyday sweater, but do find myself wishing I'd added an inch or so to the yolk depth on that one too, but my weekenders are perfect in every way! Thank you so much for all you do to bring joy into the knitting community!
2. Hi Andrea. I’m having so much fun with the 100 days of spinning challenge so far and have loved doing a spindle spin in the morning and wheel spin before bed. I took the Worsted to Woolen class you recommended on craftsy and am now working on my first big woolen spin but I’m noticing my drafting arm getting tired doing it everyday so I thought I should break it up with a smaller worsted spin project that I can alternate with my woolen spin. My question is: I have two 2oz painted braids in the same color way that I want to do a 3 ply fractal spin for a sock yarn with. How do I break up the fiber between the two braids to make the fractal spin work? I would know how to handle it if it was a single 4 oz braid but for some reason the math of dividing up the two braids for a 3 ply is making my brain melt. Help please.
3. I am wondering why most or at least many sweater patterns call for holding two yarns together in stead of just using one yarn.
4. Hi Andrea, I have a question about sweater fit. I've several a few top down sweaters (both raglan and yolked designs), and have noticed that they all have a lot of extra fabric in the lower back. I have a large bust and smaller waist (41" vs. 36") so have selected patters which are suitable for my chest size (and have checked the resulting gauge and the schematic) and have been getting the expected resulting size. However, while the yolk and bust seem to fit me well, the ribbing at my waist doesn't fit me and is flappy (i.e. it doesn't hug my waist). What would be the appropriate modification here? I'm considering either decreasing out at the underarm to fit my body measurements, or knitting a smaller size to match my upper bust, but I'm concerned about disrupting the good fit around my chest. I love knitting garments because I really dislike having tops which emphasize or pull at my bust, so am hoping there is a fairly straight-forward modification that I can do to ensure the body fits comfortably as well. Thank you for any suggestions!
5. Hi Andrea! I love your podcast and it has kept me company on many days when otherwise i would be knitting solo. My question is this: I love the look of a drop shoulder sweater and how they lay on my shoulders and upper body, but often i find they have too much positive ease in the body. Is there a way to seam under the arms to bring in the body before joining to knit in the round? I know you have said a drop shoulder needs to have a boxy fit and fitted sleeves to look proportional but I look ridiculous with 10" of positive ease which most patterns call for. For reference my bust is 35" and my waist is 26" so to have a 45" finished bust means my waist has almost 20" of ease. Thanks so much!!
