Knitting Knitting from the DoA archives: Laura Gilkey's MSD side-to-side sweater

Long, long ago, there were some wonderful patterns posted to the original DoA Yahoogroup, and then imported over to this forum when it got started. As DoA grew and servers changed, those patterns became harder and harder to find. A few years ago, my dear friend SillyDog and I made a project of saving the pattern archive, with the idea of someday adding it to the Wiki or some other part of the forum.

As we have time, we'll post those patterns so everyone can use them! Here's the seventh one in our series. It was originally posted on the DoA Yahoogroup by the marvelous Laura Gilkey, and it's reproduced here exactly as she wrote it and with her original pictures included. If you use this pattern, please give Laura Gilkey the credit for it!






Side to Side Sweater

for Mini Super Dollfie

by Laura Gilkey

Permission is granted for members of Den of Angels to make or commission as many garments from this pattern as they wish for their own dolls, and also to sell as many garments from this pattern as they wish, provided that they themselves make by hand those garments intended for sale.

Fingering yarn on #2 US (2.75 mm) needles.
Gauge: 7 sts and 9 rows = 1 inch
You will also need four 5/8" buttons

Cast on 22, leaving long tail for sewing.

Rows 1-7: K1, p1 rib.

Rows 8-38: Stockinette Stitch. Increase in rows 19, 25, 31, and 37 like so: K1, m1, k until 1 st remains, m1, k1. (30 sts)

Row 39: Cast on 17, k across. (47 sts)

Row 40: Cast on 17, k5, p until 5 sts remain, k5. (64 sts)

Row 41: K across

Row 42: K5, p until 5 sts remain, k5.

Rows 43 & 44: repeat rows 41 and 42.

Rows 45-51: K across (garter stitch).

Rows 52-54: K5, (p2, k2) across until 5 sts remain, k5. This pattern is double stitch, with a 5-stitch border of garter stitch. Until row 86, you will continue in this pattern by purling all knit stitches and knitting all purl stitches on each row and referring to this pattern when necessary.

Rows 55 & 56: Work 29, turn, work back.

Rows 57 & 58: Work 28, turn, work back.

Rows 59 & 60: Work 27, turn, work back.

Row 61: Cast off in knit 34 sts, work across (30 sts)

Row 62: Work across.

Row 63: S1, work 1, psso, work across. (29 sts)

Rows 64-67: Repeat rows 62 and 63 twice. (27 sts)

Rows 68-70: Work across.

Row 71: Work 1, m1, work across. (28 sts)

Row 72: Work across.

Rows 73-76: Repeat rows 71 and 72 twice. (30 sts)

Rows 77 & 78: Cast on 34 sts, work 27, turn, work back. (64 sts)

Rows 79 & 80: Work 28, turn, work back.

Rows 81 & 82: Work 29, turn, work back.

Rows 83-86: Work across.

Rows 87-93: K across (garter stitch).

Row 94: K5, p until 5 sts remain, k5.

Row 95: K across.

Rows 96 & 97: Repeat rows 94 & 95.

Row 98: Cast off 17, p until 5 sts remain, k5. (47 sts)

Row 99: Cast off 17, k across. (30 sts)

Rows 100-130: Stockinette stitch; decrease in rows 101, 107, 113, and 119 like so: S1, k1, psso, k until 2 sts remain, k2tog. (22 sts)

Rows 131-137: K1, p1 rib.

Cast off, leaving long tail for sewing.

For collar, pick up stitches around the neck edge---you should get somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 sts, but the exact number isn't important. Work 5 rows of k1, p1 rib and bind off.

For button bands: on each button edge, pick up 32 sts from body and neck ribbing (here the exact number of stitches is important). Work 6 rows Garter stitch and bind off. In one band (traditionally, the one on the doll's right (your left) for a girl and the one on the doll's left (your right) for a boy), make buttonholes like so:

Row 3: K3, (cast off 2, k6) across, ending with k3. (24 sts)

Row 4: K3, (m2, k6) across, ending with k3. (32 sts)

Weave in ends except at cuffs. Use tails at cuffs to sew side seams; weave in ends. Attach four 5/8" buttons to plain button band.

Then just put on your doll and enjoy!


Options:

The sweater-or-cardigan option couldn't be simpler. Just button it in front for a cardigan or button it in back for a sweater.

To make a two-color sweater like the prototype, work rows 1-44 in color A, work rows 45-93 in color B, then work rows 94-137 in color A. Make the collar and button bands in color A, and use buttons to match color B.


Notes:

I designed this side-to-side sweater because everyone (including me) loves sweaters, but traditionally-constructed sweaters just didn't seem to agree with me; I hated sewing them together and such, so this design makes for a minimum of assembly hassles; just sew the two side seams. And it never splits, so you don't even need a stitch holder. The problem of course is that stockinette stitch running the length of the sleeves is fine, but it isn't usually used sideways, so on the body, it would look kind of odd; that's why I used garter stitch and double stitch. I think it works well. If you're comfortable with this pattern, though, feel free to try out different pattern stitches. The side-to-side design gives you the opportunity for horizontal cables, perhaps around the waist, or from cuff-to-cuff, up the sleeves and across the chest.

 

I keep forgetting to come back and show a more recent example of these patterns in action! I especially like to use variegated and self-striping yarn with this one.



In order to use smaller buttons that are in better scale with the doll, I omit the knitted buttonholes and just slide the buttons between two threads of the front band. (If need be, use a largish knitting needle to stretch out that space between threads -- gently!) And I've scaled up the pattern to SD size by using sportweight or DK yarn on size 4 (US) needles, and adding 4-6 rows to the sleeves.

 

That's a good question -- I've never tried it! But I think I'd start by trying laceweight yarn on 2mm needles, and see what happens (probably the sleeves would need to be shortened, but that wouldn't be too hard).

 

There are two kinds of effects, I've found -- first, actual self-striping yarn will have wider stripes (sometimes color blocks) in dolly scale, because the doll garments are usually knitted on fewer stitches than, for instance, a human-sized sock. Second, randomly variegated yarn will often knit up in lovely, even stripes at dolly scale, for the same reason. You never really know until you've done some swatching, or (my usual reckless strategy) just dived in and started knitting.

Sometimes I'll wind up knitting three sleeves in order to get two that look balanced or matched together -- but then, sometimes the first section I knit will reveal the not-so-random repeat pattern in the yarn, and I'll be able to choose the starting-point in the repeat when I cast on for the next section to ensure better symmetry or matching. The results really depend on the yarn, which is the fun part for me.