Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Lanyard cast-on and lanyard-cast off IRL + Matching deco-band
Baby sweater+hat

 Lanyard cast-on and cast-off how-to was the last post, and here it is in real life on a side-to-side baby sweater. Bonus: a matching deco-band

...plus a little hat

Along the edges are the lanyard cast-on and cast-off. 
The deco band echos the lanyard pattern but is worked in the fabric interior.

This little garment is knit in washable worsted-weight yarn. It is adapted from a baby sweater by Claudia Olson. Originally designed in fingering weight, this adaptation is knit with worsted-weight yarn and greater ease. The bottom border and neck in the original are eliminated: the adaptation adds these in afterward. 

To be clear, the pattern is not offered here: it is on Ravelry (free download) as side-to-side baby sweater.  This post shows adaptations for where and how to work the lanyard cast on, lanyard cast off and deco band, to add color and detail along bands of all kinds: bottom, top, neck, front and brim.

Add color and detail to bands of all kinds

* * *

There are seven sections to the sample garment. The diagram is not to scale. 

Worked left cuff to right cuff, click here to enlarge
1. left sleeve    2. left shoulder    3. left front    4: back
5: right front    6: right shoulder    7: right sleeve


Section 1: left sleeve

The baby sweater starts with a lanyard cast-on along the left sleeve-cuff. 

Geek note: this is the only lanyard cast-on of the entire sweater. Due to the side-to-side construction and adaptations, all the other exposed edges are worked as a lanyard cast-off. More discussion at tension, below. 

The lanyard along this cuff is an s-mounted 3-strand lanyard.

The 3-stranded lanyard was worked in three colors:   pink ,  green , and  blue , in that order. Used as a cast on, a lanyard made like this doesn't really show the (pink) first color. What shows is a three-layer stripe where a filling of (green) second color purls appears between upper and lower layers of the (blue) third color: blue sandwich stuffed with green purls.

...blue sandwich stuffed with green purls, schematic...

Here is the lanyard in use as a cast-on IRL. By picking up the pink bumps on a slim dpn, nearly all that color is pulled out of the lanyard to be transformed into the live (pink) stitches. What's left behind is that blue sandwich stuffed with green purls--the second color layered inside the third, shown hanging below the needle in the photo below.

...blue sandwich stuffed with green purls, IRL.
The pink has been pulled up into the live stitches and hardly shows in the blue and green cast-on hanging below the needle.

Above this cast on, a K1, P1 ribbing was worked on the live stitches for several rows, without any additional shaping. 

Next up, the deco band.

Deco band pattern

For decoration, the deco band creates a stitch pattern very similar in appearance to the lanyard cast-on and -off. The deco band is worked with the same colors as for the lanyard edging, but differs in two ways.

First, the deco band is not a lanyard at all: it is just rounds of ordinary knitting. 

Second, The deco-band colors are not worked in the same order as the lanyard. 

   --The lanyard is worked in three colors, which are first=A (pink), second = B (green), third = C (blue), e.g.: A, B, C.

--However, the deco band is worked in color A (pink), then color C (blue) then color B (green) and then color C again (blue), e.g.: A, C, B, C.

...very similar in appearance
(Right: lanyard, left: deco band)

Worked FLAT on a stockinette or ribbed background (as for this sweater), and worked on DPNs or a circular needle. 

  • Leading up to deco-band, work a last row in the main color on the back fabric face (here, the last row was in ribbing, and main color, A =  pink ). Turn work to front fabric face. Pink running yarn is now at right edge of work. Drop this yarn: it is to wait here for several rows.
  • Begin deco band...
  • Row 1 (front): Knit one row of the color C, (here,  blue ). Blue running yarn is now at left edge of work as seen from front fabric face. 
  • Row 2 (front): Slide stitches to left tip of DPN. Knit one row of the color B (here,  green ). The running yarn of this color is now at the left edge of the work. It may be trimmed to a two or three inch tail to be worked in later, it will not be used again. Turn work.
  • Row 3 (back): KNIT one row color C,  (here,  blue ). Turn work. The running yarn of this color is now at the right edge of the work as seen from the front fabric face. It may be trimmed to a two- or three inch end now to be worked in later, it will not be used again. 
  • ...deco band is now finished.
  • To continue work, (front) the running yarn of the main color A, (here,  pink )  has been waiting at the right edge of the work as viewed from the front fabric face. Using this yarn, return to stockinette by knitting a row in this color. 
Geek note. Row 2 (green), is knit but comes out purled. Wonder why you don't just purl row 2? The short answer is that row 3 bumps out the stitches in row 2 to become purls. The long answer is in this post about mysteries of knitting.

Again, the sleeves on this garment are worked flat. But later in this garment, the deco-band will be worked in the round, so here are those directions.

To work deco-band IN THE ROUND, then, starting on the front face of a knitted fabric:

  • In ribbing or stockinette or whatever your fabric pattern is, knit up to where band is wanted, using first color (main color A, here,  pink ).
  • Begin deco band...
  • Round 1: knit one round in color C (here,  blue )
  • Round 2: knit one round in color B here,  green ). At end of round, this yarn may be trimmed to a two or three inch tail to work in latter, it will not be used again. 
  • Round 3: purl one round in color C (here,  blue ). At end of round, this yarn may be trimmed to a two or three inch tail to work in latter, it will not be used again.
  • ...deco band is now finished
  • Return to fabric pattern in color (main color A, here,  pink ).

On the little sample sweater, the sleeve deco band was knit flat. To reduce the number of ends to be worked in, the two contrast colors (green and blue) were carried up the side from the cast-on to the deco band. 

After knitting the deco band, the knitting continues until the sleeve is approximately 3 ½" long in total, working increases at stated intervals along the arm. 

Geek note. As it turns out, the rate of increase and decrease is pretty much the same regardless of yarn weight. This applies not only to the arm increase, but also to the arm decrease, plus both sides of the neck shaping. This means you can read the rate of shaping (but not the stitch count!) right off the base pattern, even if knit in heavier yarn. 

Section 2: Left shoulder

When the sleeve is approx. 3 ½" long, the sides are cast on, approximately 5" of length on either side, which you can calculate from your own stitch gauge.  I used the trick of casting on 2/3 of the required stitches as backwards loops, then making up to the required number of stitches on the return trip by making additional loops out of the slack. 


Putting a marker in the last row before casting on the second set of stitches allows for easy row-counting when the time comes to match right sleeve to left. The easiest marker: place a three- or four-inch strand of contrast color (cc) yarn in the space between any two stitches. *Knit a few stitches in the ordinary way, then flip the cc yarn to the opposite fabric face, again slotting it into the space between two stitches. Repeat from * until the entire strand is interwoven. This kind of row-marker easily pulls right out of the work when the time comes.

Geek note: These cast on stitches, together with the sleeve side-edges make the A-B left side seam per assembly diagram below. 

Section 3: left front


The stitches for the back  (½ the total) are put on a holder and the left front knitted with the neck decrease worked as per the pattern. Stop when the front is approximately 2 inches wide. 

Again, you may wish to put a marker in the last row before the neck decrease begins, to allow for accurate row-counting when you come to match the right front to the left. 

When the left front if finished, those stitches are put on a holder.

Section 4: back


The back stitches, previously placed on a holder, are strung back onto the needles, and the back is worked until approximately 4 ½ inches have been added. The stitches are again put on a holder. 

Geek note. If you happened to have TWO circular needles in the same gauge, you could switch between them as holders, saving having to restring the stitches as the back stitches are set aside and then re-activated, again set aside, again re-activated.

Section 5: Right front


The stitches for the right front are cast on provisionally--COWYAK is an easy method for this. The number to cast on is identical to the number put on a holder back in section 3, left front. The rate of neck INcrease is also the same as was the rate of DEcrease for the neck in section 3, and again, that is on the pattern. 

After the right front is knitted for the same number of rows as was the left, then on the last purl row, simply continue up the stitches reserved for the back. This joins the previously free-standing right front onto the rest of the sweater. All the stitches are now live. Again, if you place a row-marker on the joining row, matching the upcoming right shoulder to the already-knit left shoulder will be easier. 

Section 6: Right shoulder


With the right front shoulder stitches joined to the back, it is time to work the right shoulder. There isn't much to this, simply knit back and forth until for the same number of rows as for the left shoulder.  When the row-counts match, cast OFF for the side-seams the same number of stitches as were cast ON for the side seams back in section 2. The stitches centered between these two cast-off edges are the sleeve stitches, waiting to knit section 7.

Geek note: These cast on stitches, together with the right sleeve side-edges coming up next make the C-D right side seam per assembly diagram. 

Section 7: Right sleeve


Match the rate of DEcrease for this sleeve to the rate at which the left sleeve was INcreased in section 1. When you reach the same row count as for the right sleeve, and the same stitch count at the cuff (which points, hopefully, coincide) it is time to work another deco-band, again following the "worked flat" directions, above. This time, however, when working the deco-band, I didn't cut the running yarns, instead letting them dangle for the next few rows as I worked the ribbing between the deco-band and the cast off.

The right sleeve ends with a lanyard cast off. This is worked as shown here, with the exception that the cast on begins by placing the first (pink, color A) stitch on a crochet hook, and then drawing a green loop (color B)  through the pink. This is followed by a blue loop (color C), and then back to a pink from the DPN. You may wish to work the last row before the cast-off with smaller needles. 

Assembling the sweater

Fold back over front, per orange arrow. 

Top:Seams A and B are the sleeve-edges and cast-on edges from sections 1 and 2. Seams C and D are the cast-off edges and sleeve edges from sections 6 and 7. The fold line runs across the middle of the shoulder sections, even with the back neck edge of section 4.

To assemble, follow the orange arrow, to flip back over front at the fold line. This turns the sweater inside out, with smooth front-fabric-face touching one another, while the bumpy purl back-fabric-face is on the outside

Bottom: A is seamed to B, then C to D. This sews the arms shut and makes the side seams also. 

In this position, 

  • the fold lines are at the top of the garment, and the garment is inside out. 
  • Thus, the FRONT FABRIC faces are together, the purl fabric is facing out and the smooth knit face of the fabric is on the inside. 

Using any method at all, edge A is sewn to edge B, then edge C to edge D. This puts the seams to the inside. After sewing, turn the garment right side out.  

Rate of pick up and marker placement

The next step is that a deco-band is worked around all remains exposed garment edges except for the cuffs--the cuffs were already worked as-you-go. Set up for this process by removing the provisional cast-on along the right front, putting the resulting live stitches on a holder. 

The deco band requires live stitches, which means using a long circular needle (at least 24" if not longer) to pick up stitches around the entire opening. 

Here is a whole post on picking up stitches along a selvedge, with several how-to's. 

The RATE of pick up around the bottom, neck increase and decrease, and neck back (outlined in green) is THREE stitches picked up for each TWO row ends. The remaining stitches along the fronts (outlined in  purple ) are simply slipped from their holders onto the needle as you come to them. As you slip and pick up, place 6 markers as shown by  red dots  on the diagram below: one marker outside each last bottom stitch, one marker outside each bottom-front stitch, and one marker outside the lowest neck stitches both sides. These locate where mitered increases will be made in the deco-band, ribbing, and lanyard cast-off.

Once all the stitches are picked up, work an additional round of stockinette stitch in the main color.

Working around a corner without providing an increase would cause the corners to flip up into half-moons. Therefore, on the two bottom corners, on every second round, when the knitting comes to the markers, an increase is worked outside each marker. This means that the markers always enclose the two corner stitches, and are flanked on the outside by the increases: exactly like working the increase along a raglan line. To get matching slants, here is a post about increases which slant in opposite directions--use one on each side of marker. 

At the neck edge, there is only a single increase, again, you can make these slant as you wish by following the directions for slanting increases in this post, and again, the rate of increase is one stitch on the NECK side of the marker, every second round. 

To be clear: there are six increases on every second round knit, two at each of the two bottom corners, one at each neck edge. 

Deco band worked in the round

After the second round of the main color, it is time to begin the deco-band. This time, the band is worked according to the "in the round" instructions, above. 

* * *

Geek note: avoid lots of ends all in the same place. Recollect that there are going to be ends to work in where the contrast color yarns of the deco-band begin and end. When working flat, as on the sleeves, there's not a lot you can do about this. However, when working in the round, as on the bands of this sweater, there are more opportunities to avoid many ends in one place. The trick is to slip along the round until some distance down the line from where any previous yarn has ended, then starting the next round of knitting there. In other words, the first round of the deco-band (here, blue) need not start at the same place last round of main color (here, pink) ended. 

You can go further with the trick of slipping also: the second round of the deco-band (second contrast color (here, green) need not start where the first (blue) one did. You can again slip to some other place and start that (green) round.  One the third round of the deco-band, when returning to the first contrast color (blue), again slip back to where that running yarn is dangling. 

Finally, after both colors of the deco band are knit, slip back to where the main color (pink) running yarn was left dangling.

By the trick of all this slipping around, only 2 ends ever need be worked in close together. 

* * *

Geek note: avoid jogs in the deco-band. To avoid jogs, overlap the first and last two stitches of the each round of the deco band as shown in this post on smoothing rounds. This makes each of the three deco-band rounds into a complete circle, instead of stacked spirals which jog. (And yes, you can work this trick AND the slipping trick!)

* * *

Ribbing, buttonholes

The deco-band is followed by ribbing for the same number of rounds as were worked between the deco-band and the lanyard edging on the cuffs. Again, the ribbing must be mitered at the 6 markers to prevent the corners from rounding and flipping up.

As you work the front bands, make button holes on one side, centered between the ribbing rounds. My go-to is the tulips buttonhole (here, worked over three stitches) but any kind of buttonhole (including the simplest, sheepseye) will work. The sample has five buttonholes. As to spacing, recollect that after making the buttonholes, additional rounds remain to be worked: the rest of the ribbed rounds, and the lanyard cast-off itself. Therefore, mentally add the additional rows of length to top and bottom of the band when working out the buttonhole spacing. 

Lanyard cast-off

After the last round of knitting, it is time to finish the garment with the lanyard cast off. Again, the full details are here, at the previous post.  If you find that the cast off is coming out too tight, consider the "single-crochet-like" variation. To avoid curling at the corners, I worked a detached chain of one blue and one green chain at each corner, between the markers. 

Hat

This was made without any particular pattern, and really, any hat pattern can be adapted. The hat starts with a lanyard cast-on (but see note about tension, below). 

There is a ribbing above the cast-on. This is followed by a deco-band worked in the round, using the trick of slipping to avoid having lots of ends in the same place and also using the smoothed-circle trick. 

Above the deco band, the hat is knit until slightly before the shaping is to start. There, another deco-band is worked. After two rounds knit plain, the decreasing begins. (Starting the shaping right after the deco band would distort the band.)
...grafted together

The hat ends by grafting together the last eight stitches (four per needle) according to step F of the truly flat hat top. 


Tension, cast on vs. cast off

The lanyard cast-on has a greater learning curve that the cast-off. You may have to experiment with several different crochet hook sizes to get the cord to your exact liking, and each iteration means starting over again from scratch. Truthfully, it took me a while to get tension. By contrast, with the cast-OFF, it's easier to adjust the tension as you go, or even to go back a step and re-do the last row or round in main color, if the tension isn't great. 

So, because the cast-off is easier to tension correctly, here's a shortcut to consider. 

  • work a provisional cast on (like COWYAK)
  • work the garment
  • end by working the lanyard cast-OFF on the live stitches where the provisional cast off is removed

On the sample sweater, that one single left cuff cast-on isn't really worth this work-around, but for longer edges like the sample hat, perhaps you'll find this shortcut worthwhile. 

As to band tension, you might automatically choose to work the cuffs from the cast-on to above the deco band using smaller needles. As usual, smaller needles along a fabric edge make for neater work, so smaller needles for the cuffs is a very reasonable choice. However, for the long and continuous band around the bottom, front and neck--well, if that long band is knit on smaller needles, it would likely pull in too much. That's a LOT of edging all the way around. The entire garment would likely become distorted. 

Lanyard edges, deco bands and yarn weight

The sample sweater was adapted to be knit in heavier yarn because lanyard edges and deco bands make more of an impression when worked in heavier yarns. Worked in very thin yarns, the color contrast details are lost. DK or above yarn weight is recommended.

--TK

This is the fourth post in a series about lanyards. The other posts are:


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