It is sweater knitting season. The weather is cooling off, and the internet is full of inspiration for knitting sweaters. If you’re anything like me, your Knit&Note Planner is already overflowing.
One of the key components that can be tricky if you haven’t made many sweaters before, is shaping. This usually takes place in the transition area between the neck, the narrowest part of your sweater, and the shoulders, the widest part of your sweater. You have probably seen this referred to as the yoke.
There are different ways to approach this transition between the neck and shoulders, but a very common approach is called raglan shaping. This type of yoke shaping usually uses what are called “make one” stitches. The idea is that at four points around your sweater, you increase the number of stitches that you have, once on each side of a stitch marker. This shaping creates a line from the top of the shoulder to the underarm. This increase will gradually grow the number of stitches that you have to accommodate the width of the shoulders. And because it is done in a gradual and consistent way, it really ends up looking quite beautiful.
The Make One Stitch
There are two stitches that often come up when you are shaping the yoke of a sweater, the M1R (make one right) and M1L (make one left) stitches. These are created by lifting the bar between two stitches and knitting into it, thus creating an additional stitch. Doing this over and over again in the the same place gradually increases the number of stitches in your work. It also creates an elegant sloping line in your fabric. For a demonstration of these two stitches, check out our video tutorials below.
M1R (Make One Right)
M1L (Make One Left)
Hopefully taking a closer look at this shaping technique will help you with your sweaters this fall. If you need some inspiration, check out our article on trendy transition sweaters. These cute sweaters are perfect to keep you not too hot and not too cold.
