I am going to make the child's vest from Ann Budd's Handy Book of Patterns. I want to add stripes. I want it to be two colors of even stripes. How do I calculate how many rows of each color? I would choose one of the colors for the edgings.
Hi and welcome!
It depends on how many rows you would like per stripe. Thin stripes of 2 rows per color or deeper stripes of 4 or 6 rows per color. Row gauge will help you convert from inches given for the pattern or schematic to number of rows in the body of the vest.
I want wide even stripes. I do not want to get to the top of my piece and have a partial row.
When you do your gauge swatch and get the correct stitch gauge for the pattern, measure the number of rows you get over about 4 inches. Divide the number of rows by 4 to figure out the number of rows per inch and multiply by the entire length of the vest given in the pattern or the schematic. Once you know the total number of rows you can figure out how many rows per stripe you'd like and how to fit them into the given length. Remember too that you can finish the front and back with a shorter stripe (i.e. fewer rows) because when joined at the shoulder, the stripe will look wider. Good luck with the vest!
Thanks! If I do 6 row stripes I get 14.5 rows. Perfect.
Post a picture of the finished vest if you'd like. We love to see knit projects!
Copyright (C) 2013 Interweave Press, LLCUse of this site signifies your agreement to the Terms and Privacy Policy, updated March 2007
