Mods: 134-55 Chocolate Passion

These are the modifications I made to the 134-55 Chocolate Passion pattern from DROPS, with running commentary as I worked through everything, including trial-and-error notes:

The idea was that by shortening the waist and the sleeves, and eliminating the back cables, I would have enough yarn to complete the smallest size.

Mods for back piece

• Stocking stitch instead of reverse stocking stitch with cables; meaning, no increases at the beginning to account for the cables from 68 to 80.
• Back piece needs to be about 13" instead of 15.35", so instead of doing first set of increases at 7cm, I'll be doing it at 5.5cm; and instead of doing subsequent increases at every 5cm, I'll be doing them every 3.5cm. I will then start armhole shaping at 14cm instead of 20cm.

(First increase took place after 13 rows.)

Wait; on second thought, some recalculation is going to be needed because the armhole depth also needs to be shorter.

• Given armhole depth: 19cm=~7.5"
• Child's armhole depth as of May 2014=5"
• Child's bust has increased by about 5.35% since that time so let's take a wild guess that the armhole depth has growth by that much, too, and say her armhole depth would now be about 5.25"
• 10% ease gives us about 5.75" or 14.67cm
• let's say 15cm
• so we need to reduce armhole depth by 4cm
• so length before armhole would need to be 7.25" or ~18.5cm
• so maybe first increase should happen at 6.5cm, then every 4.5cm, and then start armholes at 18.5cm.
• armholes would then be 14.5cm long and the whole back piece would be 33cm tall or 13" which is just right

Okay, time to rip back to first increase!

(But maybe I'll wait till tomorrow when she's awake and I can measure her armhole depth for sure.)

Good thing I waited. I measured the armhole depth of a sweater that's just the right fit for what I want, and it's 16.5cm. Which means the body before the armhole needs to be 16.5cm. So first increase should happen at 6cm, then every 4cm, then start armholes at 16.5cm.

• First 6cm took 14 rows.
• Next decrease after 23 rows.
• Last decrease after 32 rows.
• It took 38 rows to get to 16.5cm, but I did another one for a total of 39 so I could start the armhole shaping on a RS row.

Now, for neck shaping on the back:

• Original back is supposed to measure 39cm and start neck shaping at 37cm. 
• This is a 2cm difference.
• I want my back to be 33cm, therefore I need to start neck shaping once the back measures 31cm.

Converting back neck shaping:

• Original Row 1: decrease from 76 sts to 72 sts by turning middle 8 sts into 4 sts.
• Original Row 2: BO middle 20 sts, leaving 26 sts on each shoulder.
• Original Row 3: decrease from 26 to 22 sts by turning 8 sts into 4 sts.
• Original Rows 4 and 5: even.
• then BO.
• rep for other shoulder.
• piece now measures 39cm.
• Because the "BO middle 20 sts instruction" comes after the conversion of the middle 8sts to 4, I really do have to BO 20 middle sts in my version. However, there will be 22 sts on each side already after I do that, not 26.

Therefore, once I hit 31cm, I should:

• work 1 row without shaping.
• BO middle 20 sts on next row, leaving 22 sts on each shoulder.
• work 3 rows without shaping.
• BO.
• rep for other shoulder.

I hit 31cm after 71 rows. (Allowing for the extra row I did on the bottom to reach RS for armhole shaping.)

Right/front edge piece

• Work as instructed until short rows are finished. (Short rows start 17cm into the right edging, which at my gauge will probably work out to 40 rows.)
• Increases should happen after 6cm/4cm/4cm as with back, instead of 7cm/5cm/5cm as per instructions.
• AT THE SAME TIME - Collar increases: original instructions say to start increases once piece measures 23cm. I can look at this as either being 3cm after starting armhole, or 16cm from top of shoulder. In the first case, 3cm after starting armhole would be 19.5cm into the front edging. In the second case, starting 16cm from top of shoulder would be 0.5cm after starting armhole, which would be 17cm into the front edging. So, hm. What to choose.
• There are supposed to be 10 increases, worked every other row, i.e. 20 rows, i.e. about 8.5cm. Starting 19.5cm into front edging, this would end the increases when front measures 28, i.e. 5cm from shoulder. Starting 17cm into front edging, this would end the increases when front measures 25.5cm, i.e. 7.5cm from shoulder.
• Given that I'm dealing with a person who needs a shorter neckline depth, and that I'm worried about running out of yarn, I'm going to go for starting the increases 19.5cm into front edging, which equals about 45/46 rows. (I used 46.)

Reality: short rows were ready to be worked (starting with RS) after 39 chart rows.

Sleeves

The pattern wants you to expand to 60 stitches for a 19 cm armhole depth but I have a 16.5cm armhole depth. 16.5 divided by 19 gives a ratio that translates I to an expansion to 52 stitches rather than 60. This same ratio  translates into needing to cast on 36 stitches rather than 42. This means 8 increases up the sleeve rather than 9. 

The rest of the conversion will have to wait until I can measure her arm from pit to wrist. Be sure to leave in some room for growth!

Result: 44cm and that is being generous so let's go for 45cm. Actual measurement of sleeve from armpit is supposed to be 50cm, so we're reducing by 90%. Sleeve cap shaping will still take up a length of 8cm, however, because I didn't mess with the armhole decrease instrutions. 

Actual sleeve asks to work 10cm in garter stitch, start increases at 15cm, and work 9 increases, one every 4cm. This brings us to 47cm, and so we then do another 3cm to hit 50cm before beginning cap shaping.

At 90%, I should therefore work 9cm in garter stitch before starting st st, start increases at 13.5cm, stop increases at 41.3cm, and then do another 2.7cm without shaping before starting the cap shaping. This gives me 27.8cm to do 8 increases. Increases therefore should happen every 4cm, or 9-ish rows. (I'll keep track here as I go.)

• Cap shaping: I have 52 sts.
• Reduction 1: 49 sts.
• Reduction 2: 46 sts.
• Reduction 3: 44 sts.
• Reduction 4: 42 sts.
• Reduction 5: 40 sts.
• Reduction 6: 38 sts.
• Reduction 7: 36 sts.
• Reduction 8: 34 sts.
• Reduction 9: 33 sts.
• Reduction 10: 32 sts.
• 6 more rows of binding off two sts at beginning brings us down to 20 sts. (6 more rows will bring the cap shaping to 7cm as specified.)
• Reduction 17: 17 sts.
• Reduction 18: 14 sts.
• BO 14.

Sleeve

• 14 garter stitch ridges on right side then 11 stocking stitch rows before first increase 
• 20 before 2nd increase 
• 29 before 3rd increase
• 37 before 4th increase
• 46 before 5th increase
• 56 before 6th increase 
• 65 before 7th increase
• 73 before 8th increase
• Ready for cap shaping 6 rows after final increase (my math was off and final sleeve is more like 44cm)

...Aaaaand the yarn pooped out after finishing the garter cuff of sleeve #2.

So here's the deal... (I love spreadsheets.)

• The remaining yarn has 6237 stitches in it for sleeves.
• Unfortunately, each sleeve requires 5157 stitches.
• However, my mom gave me some Swish Sport yarn in the Wave Heather colour that she had leftover from a cardigan she crocheted for my eldest for Christmas! Wave Heather is *extremely* close in colour to the Wonderland Heather I'm using in this project.
• So, I knitted up a bunch of garter stitch above the cuff for sleeve #2 (which was done in the original worsted weight in Wonderland Heather), and you can only slightly tell that it's a different colour and weight from the original.
• Therefore, I can use the Sport Wave Heather for the garter stitch cuffs and the Worsted Wonderland Heather for the stocking stitch remainder of the sleeves. It'll look a bit different in the garter stitch, but since garter stitch always looks different from stocking stitch anyway, the eye will never know that the yarn is different. (This is the theory.)
• Unfortunately, even without the garter stitch cuff, it'll take 8226 stitches to do the rest of both sleeves, and I only have 6237 of the Worsted.
• However, DD1 has said she's okay with three-quarter length sleeves.
• So I have to figure out how much to shorten the sleeves.
• If eliminate the first three increases (ie starting at 42 stitches), then I'll need only 6030 stitches. If I add back in two rows of 40 stitches and THEN do an increase to 42 stitches, I'll need 6190 stitches. This is a good match.
• So I need to cast on 40 stitches and do the garter stitch cuff.
• I got 1584 stitches out of the Sport.
• Divide that by 2 sleeves and 40 stitches, and I can get 19.8 rows per sleeve. Minus the cast-on, that's 18.8 rows per sleeve. So, nine ridges of garter stitch.

So, the plan:

• Cast on 40 stitches with the sport and work 18 rows of garter stitch.
• Cut the sport, join the worsted and do 2 rows of stocking stitch.
• Increase to 42.
• Do 7 rows of st st.
• Increase to 44.
• Do 8 rows of st st.
• Increase to 46.
• Do 9 rows of st st.
• Increase to 48.
• Do 8 rows of st st.
• Increase to 50.
• Do 7 rows of st st.
• Increase to 52.
• Do 6 rows of st st.
• BO 3 at beg of next two rows. (46)
• BO 2 at beg of next 6 rows. (34)
• BO 1 at beg of next 2 rows. (32)
• BO 2 at beg of next 6 rows. (20)
• BO 3 at beg of next 2 rows. (14)
• BO rem 14 sts.

Result: perfection. Two sleeves, with basically no leftover sport and about 3.5 yards left of the worsted,  which I'll use for the seaming. 

Nope, screw it. I want her to have long sleeves, so long sleeve she shall have. I got the same colour yarn in sock weight and am doubling it to create the extra 50g of wool I need to make full-length sleeves. So I'm still using the sport weight for the garter cuffs, then moving to the original yarn and using that for as long as it lasts, then moving to the doubled sock weight yarn. Hopefully the dye lot is not so horribly different between the worsted and the sock; given that it's a heather, I'm hopeful.

However, unfortunately I don't have enough of the sport weight to do the 14 full ridges on the cuffs as per my original plan, only 11 ridges. So the new plan is...

• CO 36 sts with sport weight
• 11 garter ridges on right side
• switch to worsted weight
• work stocking stitch until cuff measures 9cm (turns out this is 5 st st rows)
• then work 11 stocking stitch rows before first increase (38 sts)
• work a total of 20 stocking stitch rows (after the 9cm point) before 2nd increase (40sts)
• work a total of 29 st st rows before 3rd increase (42 sts)
• work a total of 37 st st rows before 4th increase (44 sts)
• work a total of 46 st st rows before 5th increase (46sts)
• work a total of 56 st st rows before 6th increase (48 sts)
• work a total of 65 st st rows before 7th increase (50 sts)
• work a total of 73 st st rows before 8th increase (52 sts)
• (switch to sock whenever worsted poops out during all of this)
• work 6 more st st rows without shaping
• BO 3 sts. (49 sts)
• BO 3 sts. (46 sts)
• BO 2 sts. (44 sts)
• BO 2 sts (42 sts)
• BO 2 sts (40 sts)
• BO 2 sts (38 sts)
• BO 2 sts (36 sts)
• BO 2 sts (34 sts)
• BO 1 st (33 sts)
• BO 1 st (32 sts)
• BO 2 sts (30 sts)
• BO 2 sts (28 sts)
• BO 2 sts (26 sts)
• BO 2 sts (24 sts)
• BO 2 sts (22 sts)
• BO 2 sts (20 sts)
• (cap shaping now measures 7cm)
• BO 3 sts (17 sts)
• BO 3 sts (14 sts)
• BO last 14.