A little stuck

This is a classic Stephaniesque moment. I’ve reached the armhole of the tank, and as I was about to begin it, I realized that I have no idea what I’m doing. None.
tankarm
I thought that I would simply cast off the right number of stitches in the correct place then decrease in an appropriate curve until the armhole was deep enough and wide enough. Good plan eh? What was I thinking? The “right” number? The “correct” place? What did I think? That this mystic information would come to me in a dream? That upon reaching the armhole I would be suddenly filled with the cosmic armhole knowledge that I lack? I have sat very quietly with the tank in my hands for some time, but the answer hasn’t come to me. This can’t be how design works. I bet this never happens to Bonne Marie, I bet she was born knowing. I bet that when she gets to an armhole it all just feels right.
The options as I see them are as follows.
1. Just try it. (I don’t know what “it” is, but maybe the vague armhole voodoo will spring fully formed into my mind as I knit.) This plan also involves me reaching deeply within myself for the acceptance that this will include a lot of frogging.
2. Scrounge around the house for a pattern that has an armhole like the one that exists in the recesses of my mind and try to somehow extrapolate that into something that would work on my tank. (To make this one work I have to forget the fact that there was no tank pattern with the right thing going on or I would have knit that and avoided this whole thing.)
3. Go drive around in Ken’s zippy new car that he loaned me while he’s away. (This might not help, but it would be fun)
4. Appeal to the knitters who read this blog to impart the principles of armhole enlightenment.
5. Shove the tank into the bottom of the knitting basket and spin this. (More fleece artist. You didn’t think I just got what I showed you yesterday, did you?)
purpleroving

19 thoughts on “A little stuck

  1. I say bind and frog. There’s no better way to ensure proper boob coverage.
    Is there a stripe in this tank? It looks like you’re striping blues…

  2. I think you should take Ken’s car for a spin. 🙂
    Regarding the tank — is there any existing top in your wardrobe that has armholes you like? If so, I’d lay it atop the existing tank and see how many stitches it decreases. (I know that’s not terribly clear; I’m thinking that it’s something like lying a piece of shaped paper on top of another piece and tracing around it, only without the tracing, which would not make your tank happy!)

  3. I just fudge it when I make up tanks. I usually bind off (if working in the round) 2-3″ at each side, centering the bind-off over the side markers. Then, working back and forth on one new half, I do a decrease at each end of every other row until I get my across-the-back desired width. It usually works out pretty well, and that seems to be the standard in tank patterns.

  4. I agree with Rana: use a garment that you already like as your guide.
    Since you have not yet begun the decreases, I would lay the knitting on top of the selected garment rather than underneath it, matching the side seams of both, then count in stitches from the side seam edge of to the curve of the armseye of the finished garment.
    CAUTION: If the garment is of substantially different width than the sweater, the fit and “exposure” in the bust area will also be different!
    To calculate further, you can measure the vertical length of the armhole of the selected garment (use a ruler, not a tape measure – you want a straight vertical line, not the full armseye curve measurement). Calculate the number of stitches subtracted from the edge of your knitting you eventually want to achieve (i.e., how far in you want the armhole to curve, stated in number of stitches). Divide the number of stitches decreased by the number of inches/cm’s of armhole depth. That will give you the number of stitches to decrease per inch/cm. You may want to adjust this number slightly over the full course of the decrease to fine-tune the gradient of the curve.
    Try this on any piece of graph paper and it will become clear to you. Filling in squares in Excel is just as easy to do and far easier to erase.
    Hope this helps you. You can email me if any further explanation is required.

  5. I agree with Rana: use a garment that you already like as your guide.
    Since you have not yet begun the decreases, I would lay the knitting on top of the selected garment rather than underneath it, matching the side seams of both, then count in stitches from the side seam edge of to the curve of the armseye of the finished garment.
    CAUTION: If the garment is of substantially different width than the sweater, the fit and “exposure” in the bust area will also be different!
    To calculate further, you can measure the vertical length of the armhole of the selected garment (use a ruler, not a tape measure – you want a straight vertical line, not the full armseye curve measurement). Calculate the number of stitches subtracted from the edge of your knitting you eventually want to achieve (i.e., how far in you want the armhole to curve, stated in number of stitches). Divide the number of stitches decreased by the number of inches/cm’s of armhole depth. That will give you the number of stitches to decrease per inch/cm. You may want to adjust this number slightly over the full course of the decrease to fine-tune the gradient of the curve.
    Try this on any piece of graph paper and it will become clear to you. Filling in squares in Excel is just as easy to do and far easier to erase.
    Hope this helps you. You can email me if any further explanation is required.

  6. Stephanie – Pull out other tank patterns and find one with armholes you like. Most armholes have a bunch of traits in common, so it should be pretty straightforward to make them match your gauge…
    I’ve rewritten this comment 3 times to try to explain how I’d do it… but I think my explanation needs pictures… and possibly a test… email me if you want…

  7. *Disclaimer: I have been knitting for just over 2 months. I have never knit a tank. Therefore, feel free to disregard the following comment.
    I would look at the other patterns. None of them were your ideal tank, but that doesn’t mean they are all entirely crap. Maybe one has ideal armholes while the rest of the tank just sucks. Also, you might find a pattern for armholes that isn’t perfection, but you can identify what you don’t like about that armhole, and using the pattern as a base, adjust it to perfection.
    P.S. I just came from a philosophy class…can you tell?

  8. I have no wisdom for you, only empathy. This exact problem happened when I was knitting a coming-home sweater for my new baby. I’m sure you won’t have the same result I did, which is a 3-month-old baby and a really teeny tiny pink sweater, knit up to the armholes, still on the needles. Maybe the next child will be a girl and I’ll have 3 or 4 years to solve the problem. This is not meant to be discouraging! I know you’ll sort it out!

  9. They’re all perfectly correct. Now just bind off at each armhole edge every other row five times and continue on. Courage. Attitude is everything.

  10. Whoa, baby, that purple fleece artist is amazingly beautiful!
    I am in love with their stuff.
    Not only are the colors lovely and striking, but their goods are REALLY good.
    Remember how I mentioned a dislike of all silk yarn?
    The skein of autumnal silk (yeah, I grabbed it after you had to go) is devilishly wonderful, and I’m changing my opinion to “I don’t like silk yarn except for Fleece Artist”.
    Hey, we discovered on the ride back to TO yesterday that they sell poutine at the Dairy Queen.
    I love Canada, but poutine?
    Feh.

  11. And of course what I =meant= was to put ten percent of the stitches on each side on a holder (or bind them puppies off) and then =decrease= each side of the gaps one stitch, every other row, five times. Is what I meant. Clearly.

  12. Poutine is a seriously bizarre dish of fried potatoes, cheese curds and gravy.
    You see it alot in Quebec, alas.

  13. Figure it out. Then let me know. That’s the one part of that whole “doing it yourself” part of knitting that I can’t quite get.
    Do people really eat this poutine? It sounds more like fertilizer/compost material to me.
    Love the Peace Fleece flower. I wish the bushes in my yard sprouted those things.

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