Oh, yeah, bet you never thought that would happen, huh? You got a guy in your life, right? Dad, Bro, Hunny, Friend-guy, whatever. Men aren’t as tough as they’d like us all to think. And they all have a very soft spot for very soft sweaters that they can snuggle into and still look manly in. That’s all right… They can look manly in a sweater that has crocheted cuffs, crocheted neckline, and crocheted hemline, but the rest is knit together. I chucked a cable on the sleeve, and boy was that a pain in the rear, but I did it. I flubbed it up a bit, near the top, cause I was dopey from lack of sleep, but I corrected it, by making the other one just like it! I also tapped into the powers of annoyance and creativity, and got a little creative with the cables on the bottom of the sweater, making the cable equivalent of knots. This is not recommended! It’s pretty, but it’s a total pain.
cabled knots
I used Red Heart Thyme and Black Fleck. It took about 2 7oz skeins of the thyme, and 2 3oz skeins of the black fleck. I now have enough leftover to make a mini-sweater for a little boy I know.
The basic pattern is as follows:
Crochet is worked last, don’t get ahead of your self here. It can totally ruin the look if you start crocheting first.
With size 10 straight knitting needles, cast on 6x the number of inches in the man in question’s waist. Measure the widest part. If he has a paunch, measure around the widest part of the paunch. I started with a measurement of 260 stitches. That’s about the right number, though I rounded up for ease of measurement and ease of sweater. Be warned, the new Red Heart yarns are softer than ever, and they get all plush feeling when washed and dried by machine. Knit the first row, purl the second, knit the third, purl the fourth, and then, grab a size 10 circular knitting needle, and knit the 5th row onto the circs. From there, make sure all your rows are straight, do not twist the fabric, and join the back of the fabric to the front. Make sure you leave this part unsewn for quite a while. You’ll need to be able to tell where to change yarns. When you reach the point at which you wish to change yarns, do so along the same row as the original split, where you joined the first circular row. It makes for a much more even and cohesive sweater. Take your time with the new yarn, love on it, coerce it into good behavior, make it happy, and you will be happy with the result. Then change back to the original yarn after about 20 rows.
The complete sweater
When you reach the part where you think it’s a good idea to split it for the sleeves, stop. Decide if you want to do the back or the front first, and then decide how you want to make it look. I usually ignore that bit about binding off 6 stitches at the base of the sleeve area, it doesn’t make much sense to me, so I just ignore it. The sweater comes out fine. So, you want to do the back or front?
To do the back first, count the stitches on your needles. Divide this number exactly in half. If you come out with an odd number, not a big deal just yet. That’ll be a later worry. Take the stitches you marked as “back” and knit them off the circular needle onto a straight needle. Leave the circular needle in the front of the work. You’ll thank me later. Knit a row, purl a row, until you have approximately 40 rows. Measure male from armpit to top of shoulder, adding 2 inches. That is your ideal measurement. I hate (passionately despise) binding off purl-wise, so I suggest you get to within a row or so of ideal, and bind off knit-wise. Make sure you count the rows, and be absolutely certain to make the same amount of rows for the front pieces. This is crucial! It can make or break a sweater. Men get a twitchy sensation when “something just doesn’t feel right” and then they refuse to wear the sweater again, claiming “it makes me feel odd, somehow” or something to that effect.
To make the front first, count all the stitches on your circular needles, and divide them in half. Place some sort of marker here. If it’s an odd number, add or subtract one. Make it an even number. Worry about oddities later. One stitch won’t kill anyone. Or you can ignore that last bit, using that one odd stitch to start the segregation process between the front pieces, by binding off the first stitch you knit onto the straight needles on the second part of the front. Oh, I know that may have sounded confusing, but it really will make sense in a moment. Count off half, or one shy of exactly half if it’s an odd number, and knit them onto straight size 10 needles. Leave the circular needles in the fabric. Trust me.
Knit a row, purl a row, knit a row, and knit 2 together (k2tog) at the end of this row, before you finish the last 2 knit stitches. That would be, in effect, the 3rd and 4th from the end knitted together. Remember this. Finish the row, turn, purl across, turn, repeat the k2tog at the end of every knit row, just before the last 2 stitches. Complete the number of rows as needed, and make sure you remember this rule: Measure male from armpit to top of shoulder, adding 2 inches. That is your ideal measurement. I hate (passionately despise) binding off purl-wise, so I suggest you get to within a row or so of ideal, and bind off knit-wise. Make sure you count the rows, and be absolutely certain to make the same amount of rows for the back piece and other front piece.
k2tog right, ssk left
To begin the second half of the front, bind off that one odd stitch, and follow the pattern above for the front half, replacing slip, slip, knit (ssk) for every k2tog. This one’s easy, believe it. You knit the first 2 stitches, then for the next 2, you slide them off the left needle, onto the right needle, then slide the other stitches back from the point of the left needle, and insert the left needle into the stitches you slid onto the other needle without knitting them. It gets a little hairy, here, but with practice, you can do it. Once you have the left needle through both slipped stitches, make sure the left needle is in front, and the right one in back, as if you were k2tog, but backwards. Then knit. The k2tog makes the decrease slant to the right, as does p2tog, but the ssk makes the decrease slant to the left, which is what you want when making the left front of a v-neck sweater.
The prettier half of the front
If you made the sweater perfectly even in front, no biggie. That’s great! The back should be even as well, but if it’s not, not a big deal. Proceed with making the back straight as the front, and the same number of rows. Do not decrease. No need for it.
Okay, on to the sleeves. This one’s fun. Start by casting on to a pair of size 9 straight needles a total of 60 stitches. This is for the comfortable size of a 9″ wrist, or more if the man in question has a bigger wrist. Less if his wrist is smaller, of course. Measure the width of his wrist, forearm, and bicep. Make the forearm larger by adding 1 stitch, using the knit 1 below (k1b) for every knit row, 10 times. Knit a row, purl a row, for 5 rows before starting the increases. As you increase, purl every other row, without increasing. After you finish the increases, knit a row, purl a row, for 12 rows. Begin increasing twice every knit row for 6 more rows, then knit a row, and purl a row for the remainder of the sleeve. If you choose to add a cable to the sleeve, as I did, begin on the 5th row, cable 6 to the front. That means slip 3 stitches off the left hand needle, change colors for those 3 stitches, and change back for the 3 that you slipped onto the cable needle. I use the term “cable needle” loosely, here, since I use a double-pointed needle for all my cabling needs. Drop the new yarn when you finish with this set of 3 stitches, and continue in the original yarn. When you purl the next row, purl the new yarn over the new yarn, and only over the new yarn. Continue knitting and purling normally, and keep knitting with the original yarn only on the stitches you didn’t change the color of. Cable every 4th row, by slipping the 3 cable stitches to the front. This means alternating. I used green and black, so I’ll use those as an example. The first cable row, the green is the original, the black goes to the front, the black yarn is dropped, the green is picked back up. The 4th row after the first, or row 10, the green is pulled to the front, the black goes to the back. The green is knit first, then the black , then the green again. Purl the next row, knit and purl, and knit again, this row being a cabling row, which means the black will be pulled to the front, the black will be knit first, then the green. I’m sure that you can figure the rest out. Pattern repeats, etc. Don’t forget to increase as you cable. Don’t increase the double increases in the cable pattern, increase closer to the sides. For the single increases, increase to the left and right of the cable, near that side, about 5-9 stitches from the cable itself, alternating increase rows. I put the cable in the center, since that made it easy to keep the cable straight.
The sleeve, with it's missnake
Make 2 sleeves, make them identical, and try not to knit when you’re too sleepy to pay attention. When binding off, once you have finished the length of the sleeve, bind off 1/3 knit-wise, turn, bind off 1/3 purl-wise, purl across, turn, bind off the remainder knit-wise.
Okay! On to the fun part! Crochet a strip of ribbing: ch8, turn, sc across, ch1, turn, *sc in back loops only across, ch 1, turn*, repeat from * to *, until the strip of ribbing is long enough to all the way around the bottom of the sweater, with a tiny bit of stretching of the ribbing. Finish off, or leave a really long tail. Cut yarn. sc to inside of the sweater, and if it’s too long, rip out as many rows as needed. If it’s not long enough, add to it. That’s what the really long tail is for.
Make another strip of ribbing, identical, not nearly as long, to go around the neckline. Starting on the right, sc to inside. Really long tail, etcetera. Rip if necessary. Join the base of the beginning to the back of the end, making a nice front placket, perfect for a v-neck sweater. For more information, see a polo shirt or a v-neck tee shirt.
Make 2 9″ strips of ribbing for the sleeve cuffs. sc these to the back, or inside, and then sew the entirety together, making a proper sleeve. Very carefully, sew the shoulder seams with matching yarn. Don’t stretch the shoulders, let them fall into place naturally. Grab your sleeves, and sew them onto the sleeve openings, gathering as needed, but not too much. Stretch a little. The sleeve top should be about 100-120 stitches across, or roughly twice the width of the wrist.
Place sweater on man, and check the fit. If it’s too small, wash it, and then try the fit again, and if it’s still too small, give the sweater to someone else. If it’s too large, or it it fits perfectly, put it away for the winter. If it’s winter already, tell him he can wear it when it gets dry. (He’ll probably protest that the bloomin’ thing is dry already, but then you have to explain that it needs a bath. It really does.)
Once the sweater is dry, (I beg of you, do not use wool!) then you’ll notice a significant improvement in the softness. Hand it over. Be proud.
The proud new owner