Curvy Girl Knit-Along, Week 2: The Decrease-athon

Welcome back, my curvy knitters! We’re in the second week of the Curvy Girl Knit-Along, and things are getting interesting! Last week, we cast on the back and worked the ribbing, the single decrease row, and the even stockinette stitch section.

How did everything go? Are you caught up? It was a pretty light first week, since I wanted to make sure everyone was able to get their supplies and get started. Feel free to comment on this post with your progress, or join our Ravelry group to talk about it!

There was one question asked on Ravelry that I thought I might be useful to others. This person asked how to go about changing the length of the pattern for someone who is a bit shorter (or who simply doesn’t want as long of a cardigan).

My answer to that would be to do so evenly. You will see in the coming week that, after the initial eight inches of stockinette, you will decrease roughly every three inches. This actually makes it fairly easy to adjust the length. Figure out how much you want to shorten it, then divide that by the number of decreases. Then shorten each section between decrease rows by that amount. There are four decreases, so if you want to take two inches off the length, simply knit 1/2 inch less between each one. Since the front pieces are don’t have these decrease rows, you simply have to make sure they match the back from edge to armhole.

Now, on to the next section: decreases!

Following the eight inches of stockinette, you work several decrease sections. At the eight inch mark, you’ll do the first one, then you’ll work three inches in stockinette. You’ll do the same three more times — after the piece is 11, 14, and 17 inches respectively. After the decrease row at 17 inches, however, you will actually work seven and a half inches of stockinette instead of just three. This should put the total length of the piece at 24 1/2 inches long.

It will probably look a little like this:

(Side note: I really like the way this tweed shade of Heartland® looks when it’s knit up.)

I kept track of my progress by putting a stitch marker at the end of each decrease row. Then I only had to measure from the last one instead of all the way from the cast-on edge.

We’re going to stop here for this week. It may not seem like a whole lot of knitting, but since it’s the back, it’s a fairly large number of stitches and so it takes awhile to do.

Next week is a big one — we’re going to finish the back! We’ll be doing bind-offs, more decreases, and working from two skeins at once, so if you need to brush up on any of those things, do it now!

Don’t forget — if you’re a crocheter, there’s a crochet version of this cardigan as well. The Curvy Girl Crochet Cabled Cardigan also uses Heartland® yarn. Feel free to make it alongside us knitters, and if you do, we’d love to see your progress too! Also if you’re a crocheter, check back later today, because we’ll have info on the next Crochet-Along.

Happy knitting, curvy girls!