Japanese Cable Vest KAL

On the Japanese Knitting and Crochet Group on Ravelry a KAL has been proposed for this cabled vest knitting pattern which is a free Japanese knitting pattern available on the Woolmark Company, a Japanese yarn company, website.

I haven't started the first vest I thought I'd would yet, so the idea of a KAL to get me started and motivated seems like a good idea. The pdf for the pattern is only one page! It still amazes me that the Japanese can write their patterns in so little space. The same pattern written out in English would be at least 3 pages.

Here is a picture of the chart:



Now, really it isn't as scary as it looks. Luckily, I have a couple of Japanese knitting symbol books to help me out.

The space on the graph that has a has a smaller chart to the left of the main chart



This means that those 2 blocked out stitches are work as the smaller chart. It looks like some kind of bobble. We've decided that we are not going to do this part of the chart. I'm not much into bobbles plus if you look at the photo, the bobbles land right on the bust of the model and look like nipples! No, thank you!

The first thing I'm going to do for this pattern is find some yarn to swatch the chart. But that means I need to translate the chart. So I'm off to find those Japanese knitting symbol books now! Oh and a yarn that gets gauge of 15 stitches and 22 rows in 10 cm as the pattern calls for.

Feel free to join the KAL even if you aren't on Ravelry (they are still in beta and you need an invitation to join which you can get by signing up from a link on the main page of the site). You can post comments here and on future posts that link to your progress on your blog.

Free Patterns on Pierott

There are some great free Japanese knitting patterns but if you don't know Japanese then it can be hard to find them or to know what the links to the pages say.

Luckily, I've been able to find some sites through Ravelry's Japanese Knitting and Crochet group and Yahoo's Knitting In Japan group. If you are anywhere interested in Japanese knitting and crochet patterns, I highly recommend both groups. The people on the lists are so nice and there are some fluent Japanese speakers that are often willing to help with translations of parts of patterns.

One of the best places to find free Japanese knitting patterns and Japanese crochet patterns is on the Pierott (Gosyo Co.,Ltd) website. The first time I got on the site, I was a little overwhelmed because I didn't know where to click for the patterns.

I use the Google search bar with the Translate feature turned on to help me read the words on the pages that aren't images.

Here's a list of some of the them:

Fall and Winter Patterns, Volume 1:
http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/gosyo/new/fw_knit1.htm

Fall and Winter Patterns, Volume 2
http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/gosyo/new/fw_knit2.htm

Fall and Winter Patterns, Volume 3
http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/gosyo/new/fw_knit3.htm

Bags (knit and crochet):
http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/gosyo/new/bag.htm

Amigurumi (crochet)
http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/gosyo/new/amigurumi_tawashi.htm

Motifs (crochet)
http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/gosyo/new/motif.htm

Caps, Mittens, Scarves (knit and crochet)
http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/gosyo/new/cap.htm

Scarves
http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/gosyo/new/muffler.htm

Tops (knit and crochet)
http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/gosyo/new/fw_knit3.htm

Tops, vests, ponchos (mostly knit)
http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/gosyo/new/fw_knit2.htm

Tops (knit)
http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/gosyo/new/fw_knit1.htm

Kids and baby (knit and crochet)
http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/gosyo/new/baby_knit.htm

Men's (knit)
http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/gosyo/new/mens_knit.htm

Shawls and stoles, with tops and a couple of suits (mostly
knit)
http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/gosyo/new/hight_knit.htm

Short sleeve tops (knit and crochet)
http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/gosyo/new/ss_knit.htm

Shawls, Scarves (knit and crochet)
http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/gosyo/new/syole_knit.htm

Interior (Zakka)
http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/gosyo/new/interior_zakka.htm

Just click on an image and you'll be taken to the information page about the pattern. There are usually 4 sections next to the garment patterns.

The first section is the yarn information. The second section is the needle section (Be careful! These are Japanese needle sizes, not US or metric. Use the Basics of Japanese Knitting page for a conversion of needle sizes). The third section is additional items needed. And the fourth section has the link to the PDF pattern.

Unfortunately, the PDFs don't have pictures of the items. So I just print out the information page and the PDF and keep them together.

I could spend hours looking at all the patterns and I have quite a few I'd love to knit. Hope you have fun looking through them too!

Sizing A Japanese Knitting Pattern - Part I

After doing all those conversion of measurements the other day for the Sleeveless Sweater Vest, I've been thinking about how to apply the measurements to a top that will fit me.

I've decided to go with 2 inches of ease for a total of 42 inches at the bust. This works out to approximately 107 centimeters around or around 53 centimeters for the front and the back. I'll round up to 108 and 54 because I like even numbers.

The original pattern size is 92 centimeters around and 46 centimeters for the front and back. So I need to to increase the width of the sweater by 16 centimeters. This is 8 centimeters each on the front and the back.

The gauge is 19 sts and 24 sts in 10 centimeters. This works out to 1.9 sts per centimeter. If I multiply this by the 16 or 8 centimeters I need it equals 30.4 or 15.2 more stitches I need to cast on.

I'll probably knit this in the round so the total stitches I'll need to cast on is 206. (88 * 2) + 30 = 206

So just to be sure this calculation is right, I'll check it another way.

206 divided by 1.9 sts is 108.42 centimeters which equals 42.7 inches which is almost an inch more then my original size but that happens with rounding sometimes.

The center panel on the front of the top is 48 stitches. I'm not planning to change this. I'm going to put the extra stitches on both sides of the panel.

Since 206 divided by 2 is 103 which is an odd number, I need to either go up 2 stitches or down 2 stitches with my cast on. I've decided to go down since I don't want the top to be any bigger. So that is 102 for the front and the back or 204 around.

102 - 48 = 54 / 2 = 27

So, all that math boils down to:

---

Cast on 204.

On round 1, Knit and place markers after stitch 27 and after stitch 75.

The stitches between the makers will be where the cable panel goes.

---

Well, that was a lot of math and enough to get started but there are other measurements I going to need to calculate like the length and the waist shaping. I'll do that in my next post.

Converting Japanese Knitting Pattern Measurements

I've started the process of converting the Sleeveless Sweater pattern. This is from a free Japanese Knitting Pattern for a vest and a set of wrist warmers.

The first thing I have done is convert centimeters to inches in the measurements. The pattern has a diagram for both the front and back of the sweater vest.

Front:


Back:


I used Google to calculate the values for me using their "convert" search. For example, if you enter "convert 46 cm to inches", the search result will be:
46 centimeters = 18.1102362 inches.
Pretty cool, huh?

I rounded the measurements two places. I will wait to do the final conversion to fractions of an inch once I do the conversions to my size.

As you can see, the bust measurement is approximately 36 inches. So the next thing I need to do is convert the pattern to fit my bust measurement of 40 inches. One of the things I can't tell from the measurements is what the ease is. I think I'll add 2 inches for ease so that the top isn't too tight. What do you think?

Look for the next step in the conversion process later this week.

Sleeveless Sweater and Wristwarmer Patterns

Free Japanese Knitting Patterns for Sleeveless Sweater and Wrist warmers

Yarn - Worsted Weight, 300 grams (10.58 oz), 653 meters (714 yards) Gauge - 19 sts and 24 rows in St st Needles - 2 Japanese Size 5 needles, 2 Japanese Size 7 needles for the Sweater Vest, 4 Japanese Size 5 DPN for Wrist Warmers Notions - Cable Needle, tapestry needle

Knitting Pattern PDF

The thing to note about the Needle sizes is that they are Japanese and are not the same as US or Metric needles. In this case a Japanese Size 5 needle is approximately a size US 4 needle and the Japanese Size 7 is approximately a size US 6 needle. I used the needle size chart from The Basics of Japanese Knitting to come up with the needle sizes.

I really like this sleeveless sweater (vest) and wrist warmers set, especially the yarn, made by a Japanese company, which has a tweedy look to it. I bet the Rowan tweed yarn would be a good subsitute yarn. I probably won't end up using the size 4 and size 6 US needles to get gauge. I usually have to go down a needle size or two.

The pattern has only one size for a 36 inch bust. It is 22 inches long. There is some waist shaping and a turtleneck.

I'd like to convert the pattern to fit me. Since the cable pattern only goes up the center of the sweater, I think I should be able to do it. I like to use the front section of Stitch 'N Bitch Nation that shows how to convert patterns. I just need to sit down with my calculator and figure it all out.

This should be good practice at converting Japanese knitting patterns and a good beginning pattern (after the neck warmer I want to do from My Favorite & Mens Knit).