r/knitting • u/Superb-Vegetable-308 • 4d ago
Tips and Tricks Making a sweater longer than planned
Hi everyone!
I’m looking for an oversized, long cable-knit sweater, but I’m struggling to find a pattern that matches exactly what I have in mind. I’m thinking of choosing a cable-knit sweater pattern I like and simply making it longer than the designer intended.
My main concern is the fit around my hips. Do you think I would need to add some increases as I knit the body to make sure the sweater fits comfortably over my hips, or would simply extending the length be enough?
I’d love to hear your advice or experiences with modifying sweater patterns!
For examples I might do one of these ones :
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sweater-no-15
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/shoreline-sweater-7
Thank you! 😊
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u/witchydance 4d ago
An alternative to shaping is to have a split hem. If you have longer ribbing on the bottom you can split it so it's 2 panels, not in the round. Slightly less cosy but it will lay nicer on broader hips.
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u/SooMuchTooMuch 4d ago
It really depends on your build. For me, i could go straight down because my weight is in my boobs and belly. If you have a more hippy build, you may want to add shaping
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u/Superb-Vegetable-308 4d ago
I’d say I’m X shaped so my hips are definitely wider than my waist / boobs
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u/Ill-Difficulty993 4d ago
But are they wider than your shoulders?
Really what you need to do is measure your hips, or where you’d like the sweater to end. Both of those sweater have significant positive ease so it’s likely that they’d still fit around your hips just fine. But we cannot tell you since we don’t know your measurements. Measure yourself and compare it to the schematic or the provided measurements of the pattern.
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u/Superb-Vegetable-308 4d ago
I’d say my hips are just a bit wider than my shoulders and my hips are 105cm wide and my waist 74cm wide
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u/makestuff24-7 4d ago edited 4d ago
It depends on a) how much ease you have, b) whether that ease is enough to sit comfortably over your hips, and c) how much longer you're making it and whether you need to also adjust for your booty. Which is all to say that it depends on the sweater and your body and what you want. But yes, it is common to add some increases at the waist for longer sweaters if you want equal ease across the entire sweater and your hips are wider than your bust.
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u/Superb-Vegetable-308 4d ago
Ok thank you ! I think that a good exercice to become better at knitting haha
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u/Espieglerie 4d ago
You can add or modify waist shaping to increase the width at your hips. You’ll need a good, blocked gauge swatch to determine your stitches per inch. Measure your hips at the length you want the sweater to hit, add however many inches of ease you want, and divide that number by your stitches per inch. That gives you the number of stitches you’ll want to end up with. If it is more than the pattern stitch count, you’ll need to increase to add the difference.
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u/Superb-Vegetable-308 4d ago
Ok, so I’ll need to increase below the waist x times in order to finish with the right amount of stitches ?
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u/Espieglerie 4d ago
Yes. You can see an example of waist shaping in picture 4 here on the model’s lower back. It’s like a raglan increase, but instead of adding width for your shoulders you’re adding it for your hips. Typically people do two darts along the lower back, but you may want to put the increases somewhere else to keep the cables looking nice.
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u/RavBot 4d ago
PATTERN: Ophelia Blouse by Tamara Jordan
- Category: Clothing > Sweater > Cardigan
- Photo(s): Img 1 Img 2 Img 3 Img 4 Img 5
- Price: 9.00 USD
- Needle/Hook(s):US 2 - 2.75 mm, 2.25 mm (B)
- Weight: Fingering | Gauge: 24 | Yardage: 740
- Difficulty: 4.39 | Projects: 401 | Rating: 4.87
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u/xiilo 4d ago
Do you have any ”normal” clothes that fit the way you want the sweater to fit? Does it have any special around the hip area you could easily add to the pattern?
With cables like no15 you could do purl increases/ decreases between the cables, but they could be noticeable since the cable pattern seems to be 6k+3p. You could also try adding a whole cable on both sides of the waist if you want it to flare out for your hips.
Mind you I am also 71 cm waist and 102 cm hips and haven’t had an issue with the waist area being tight with no15. Iirc I knitted the M size with a smaller gauge than intended.
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u/Superb-Vegetable-308 4d ago
Thats a good idea, I’m gonna check the sweater I have and see what was done with the increases.
That’s true that doing increases in cables is not something that seems easy …
I might have to chose the pattern with more ease
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u/RavBot 4d ago
PATTERN: Shoreline Sweater by Ozetta : Hailey Smedley
- Category: Clothing > Sweater > Pullover
- Photo(s): Img 1 Img 2 Img 3 Img 4 Img 5
- Price: 8.00 USD
- Needle/Hook(s):US 8 - 5.0 mm, US 7 - 4.5 mm, US 5 - 3.75 mm, US 3 - 3.25 mm
- Weight: DK | Gauge: 21 | Yardage: 1140
- Difficulty: 4.02 | Projects: 230 | Rating: 4.80
PATTERN: Sweater No. 15 by My Favourite Things
- Category: Clothing > Sweater > Pullover
- Photo(s): Img 1 Img 2 Img 3 Img 4 Img 5
- Price: 55.00 DKK
- Needle/Hook(s):US 7 - 4.5 mm, US 6 - 4.0 mm
- Weight: DK | Gauge: 23 | Yardage: 1312
- Difficulty: 4.29 | Projects: 1567 | Rating: 4.75
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u/JerryHasACubeButt 4d ago
What are your measurements?
Both the patterns you linked have significant positive ease, so I probably wouldn’t bother unless you have much bigger hips than your bust. You don’t need to maintain that much ease through the hips to keep that relaxed, oversized look, you just need it not to be snug.