Has anyone made D. Langen's "Coral Picot Cropped Cardigan?"

[pragmatica]

Hi, venerable fonts of knowledge:

 

Has anyone made Diane Langen's Picot Cropped Cardigan at http://www.dianelangan.com/coralsh.html? I have all the pieces and the math comes out right for how many rows there ought to be on each piece, but the finishing directions of "stitch shoulders, stitch sleeves" isn't detailed enough for a novice sweater maker.

 

Basically, following the instructions for medium, you end up with three pieces:

 

* Two sleeves, made of tubes, but the last seven rows are straight pieces that look more or less like they'd cap over the top of your shoulders (and the missing part would be your underarm). For size M, 44 rows total.

 

* One thing that somehow becomes the body but I don't really know how. Total number of rows on this is 26 for the pieces that'll end up in the front and 27 for the piece that'll end up in the back, per the pattern. Here's a picture. Ends not woven in, item not blocked or shaped, etc. -- just wanted to show what this thing ended up looking like.

 

What I can not figure out to save my life is how to turn this thing into an actual sweater. The bit that goes all the way around the body is only seven rows, per the pattern, and it seems like that part could be lots more rows up toward the armpits, but it's not, and I can't figure out what to stitch together to make it look look right.

 

This is my first sweater which means that I don't have any general theory OR practice on how this thing should be assembled or any way to figure if the pattern has something wrong with it.

 

No matter how I fold this thing, I can't make it line up in any way that makes sense and it's making me unnecessarily angry. It's really making me think that I'm never going to get past advanced beginner.

 

Thanks for any help.

 

Elissa

[jenuine226]

Hi Elissa -

 

I looked at your body piece and my best guess is that you fold the two side pieces in, and you seam along the top. See where the middle of the "back" is straight, and where there are two dips on each side? You would probably seam the tops of the two front pieces to the two side dips in the body piece. (Side dips NOT to be confused with the arm holes, of course.) That would leave you with a short vest-like garment (except it is open in the front). Then you attach the sleeves to the armholes that were created when you assembled the body piece.

[sprtsbear]

You email Diane Langan and she will try to explaiin how this goes together.

[pragmatica]

Jenny, thank you so much!!! That makes a lot more sense than the many different ways that I tried to put this together. I just couldn't get my mind around the three-dimensional aspect of the sweater. (Yeah, I'm kind of a moron in this area; I'm trying to get over it. I have had similar spatial orientation problems my whole life.)

 

Sprtsbear, I didn't want to bother Diane Langen for help with a free pattern unless I just couldn't figure it out with the assistance of folks around here. She was nice enough to post a free pattern, and I didn't want to bother her for tutelage on something I didn't pay for. However, if jenuine226 hadn't made the lightbulb go off over my head, I certainly would have asked Ms. Langen next.

 

And overall, I don't mind y'all knowing how incapable I am of understanding garment construction, because you've all seen me have stupider problems than this one.

 

I will try putting this together after the kids are put away tonight, and hopefully I'll have some nice pictures in show and tell by the end of the week.

 

--Elissa

[mwedzi]

Elissa is right. I have never made this pattern but made another Diane Langan pattern and it was the same way. The big part in the middle is the back, and the smaller pieces on either side correspond to the left front and the right front.

[pragmatica]

Mwedzi, fwiw, I got that the pieces in front were the front from the documentation, but because I'm kind of a moron in certain areas, I couldn't figure out where they attached in the back; I didn't think about putting them on the diagonal slant which is now obviously the way to do it because a) it worked, and b) well, duh, except that I really do have problems with visual and spatial orientation, which never caused a problem when I was just making blankies and hats and scarves, but which I clearly have to find a way to work around if I'm going to move into intermediate garment construction. I guess I should start paying attention to where the seams are on my clothes.

 

(Does this board give prizes for run-on sentences? Can I enter?)

 

Anyway, now that I know where the bleeping shoulders attach, it's all good. Or it will be. Just need to get the sleeves on, and it'll be done.

 

Thanks again to all for the help!

 

Elissa

[fancyk]

I just made this in a hurry the other day I didnt like the way the back decreased so I just crochet it straight up to the top and it worked out ok and instead of the sleeve I joined at underarn and made it a ch1 skip 1 mesh aroun for about 8 or 10 rows and put a shell edging on it I only used one skein of yarn I almost had the thing done and didnt like how it was turning out and I sure wasnt going to frog it