Maybe I am completely off-base here (in which case please disregard this completely) but if this is something that occurs when the cardigan is buttoned, it may be because you have sewn the buttons smack in the center of the band. As counter-intuitive as it seems, you are better off sewing the buttons slightly off center since once fastened, they will want to pull to the edge of the band. Hard to put into words, but I hope this makes sense.
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Excellent advice! I also recommend making the buttonhole band 2 rows or so wider that the button bandā¦ not that this has a single thing to do with the torque issue.
Bias showing up in the knitting- also called ārackingā - is more than simple twist in the yarn. you mention that the yarn is a 4 ply- but there are lots of ways to ply 4 strands. They might be plied, or cabled, in twos, and then those two 2-ply yarns are plied or cabled together. Cable is what we call it when two yarns that are both s, or both z,are put together in the same twist direction as they are spun. Cable yarns are springy, lively creatures, often with wonderful stitch definition. We like them for showing off texture and stitch patterns. Yarns that are made of plies that are all spun one direction, and the whole thing plied the other direction can make a balanced yarn that never racks. Smooth yarn, great for those soft knits.
You can see that you could have a pretty sophisticated set of s and z and ply and cable out of all the combos you could get with 4 plies. So thatās one thing.
Depending on how the yarn is spun/plied and how you knit, you can add and subtract twist while you are knitting. If you have a righty and a lefty using the same style (continental for ex.) one may have a problem while the other does not. Taking some twist out as you knit leads to split stitches. Adding a little twist as you knit leads to kinks in the yarn.
What this all boils down to, is a gauge sample, washed, dried, rested, and observed whenever you going to knit $80 worth of something into a garment. You will get away with murder on the small stuff, but the big stuff will bite you otherwise. As for the sweater that is already knit: Howabout some iron-on interfacing? The shetland cardigans of the 60ās used grosgrain ribbon as backing for the button bands. Guess why?
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All this referring to Car Talk, and I canāt believe that noone has asked-
What color is the sweater?
Also, to whoever was contemplating knitting linen in the round. Donāt do it. It will bias. You will be much happier if you knit in pieces and seam. Sewing it up will take less time than ripping it all out when you realize that itās unwearable.
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Spicy habanero
Does that content/page exist anywhere else? When I click on that link, I get redirected to an Interweave page that says āWeāve come unraveledā
I think I was unsuccessful in attaching a link. Let me try again:
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Youāre right! It wasnāt like that before - there was real content. I wonder if they are getting Cyber Monday traffic that has impacted their website. Iād say try again on Tuesday (or later today). Iāll also try. Dang!
Also, Interweave just re-did their website. I wonder if they dropped content, either deliberately or accidentally. They donāt have a link for Knitting Daily TV anywhere that I can find. Hmmmā¦
Found it! http://www.interweave.com/wp-content/uploads/understanding-yarn-BtB-F2002-1.pdf - sorry for the multiple replies. Was doing this in between meetingsā¦
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Brilliant! Thank you so much.
Man, this is great information.
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Sorry for long delay in responding. I want to change the buttons anyway, so Iāll move them. Should they go closer to the edge or away from it? Thanks!
You are better off sewing the buttons further from the edge of the button band, as the buttonholes will be gently pulling them towards the edge. I hope this makes sense. Good luck!
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Oops, sent too soon. Let me add that I looked at your photos on Ravelry and ā wow, what a gorgeous sweater you made!
Thank you! The sweater is really pretty hence my pickiness about the
twisting. I was the first one to complete it when the pattern came out.
The other issue with the pattern that I mentioned to the designer is by
having ribbing on one side of the front the other side is not so fitted.
Wow, great sweater in a great color! Good luck with the buttons!
I learned about the center pull twist addition issue during a tri-ply calss a couple of years ago. Iād already moved to exclusively working from outside of the yarn cake by that time though.
Something else to pay attention to as well. When most of us cake our skeins, we choose the path of least resistance to get it off the winder without it turning into a tangled nightmare. BUT if you donāt pay attention to the direction of the twist when you are winding multiples of the same yarn, you will end up working the same yarn in opposite ways in the resulting pattern, which can skew your work.
I hit this making, of all things, a Sockhead hat that I needed to break into the second skein for and, thanks to the color play, realized the second one was wound opposite to the first. Easy to correct before you start using it.
Good luck figuring it out. Iām working Ripplerock in a high twist yarn, Knit Picks Paragon, and already worried about how the pattern is going to pop after blocking. While Paragon is gorgeous and soft and squishy, itās not as suited for lace as Iād hoped but itās a wedding shawl for a friend and Iām well past the point of no return.
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I donāt know if there is a solution to this particular problem or not. I have always thought I was a loose knitter and have to go down a needle size or two to get stitch gauge. No problem. However, I am almost always unable to get row gauge (more rows per inch than recommended gauge). For many patterns this is not a problem. Is there a way to adjust for this, other than to just knit more rows?
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Well, if thereās a situation where the pattern tells you to work a certain number of rows, you may need to use math to determine how many rows in your gauge. I use the app āGaugefyā for adjusting both stitch counts and row counts.
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I hadnāt heard of that app. Thanks for the tip.