Welcome to week two. How are your pieces coming along? Danielle’s working away at her sweater back and I’m diligently plugging along on my front piece. I’ve been finding that the more stockinette, the faster the rows go. I’m enjoying the knit, but without colorwork or an evolving pattern, I’m reminded that we’re knitting two rectangles here.

We’ve had a handful of people come into the shop looking for guidance on modifications. The main question has been about modifying the sizes. Since there isn’t any shaping to contend with, the easiest way to modify the size of your garment would be to cast on the front and back for two different sizes. For example, let’s say that you decided you really wanted a sweater with a 40″ finished bust instead of the 38 or 42.5 sizes. To accomplish this you’d cast on the back of the 38 and the front of the 42.5. The trick to making this work when it comes time to seam it all together is to make sure to knit to a consistent length. As the pattern is written, the front piece is 1.5″ shorter than the back piece and the sweater gets longer as the sizes go up. So, decide how long you want the back to be (24″ for the 38 or 25″ for the 42.5) and then knit the front to the corresponding length (22.5 or 23.5 respectively). This way you’ll avoid any seaming issues that would come from the pieces being either too similar or too different in length.

Stop by next week when we talk about seaming strategies.

Remember to share your progress with the hashtag #fsAprilKnitalong. Post a picture of your finished garment on the Ravelry thread by the end of the month and be entered to win a $50 gift card. Happy stitching!