ravelry to the rescue - short rows

short rows have always and probably will continue to befuddle me.  but every seasoned knitter i know swears by them, citing short rows as the liberator/savior from shapeless knits.  unfortunately for me, reading about them and poring over diagrams and even watching youtube videos just haven't helped.  i can't seem to wrap my mind around them - pun intended, for all you knitters out there.  ;p

so when i posted another cry for help for my current WIP, and when good ol' schrouderknits responded with her amazing clarity, i knew i had to repost our entire convo once again for when i'm really ready to tackle short rows for real.

ME: 
I am in the process of knitting Katy Did It in the round as per askaar’s mods. I have split for front and back and, after having finished and bound off the front, am realizing that I perhaps want some short row action on the back so I won’t be garroted.

If I’m correct in my assumption and I could stand to do some short rows, how many sets do you think I need to work? Would 2 or 3 do the trick?

Also, I have researched extensively on how to do short rows and some instructions have you increasing as you do your wrap and turns - I don’t exactly know why this is necessary and am wondering if I need to do so in this case.

And finally, if I do need several sets of short rows, how many stitches past the wrapped stitch do I work before turning again?

Of course, if you all say that I don’t need short rows at all and that the front neckline will drape nicely and not cut my throat off, then maybe I can once again put off understanding short rows for another day. ;p

SCHROUDERKNITS:

This sweater’s neckline is not shaped at all. That works because it’s a boatneck, ie the neckline is much wider than usual which is left open when you sew your shoulder seams together, theoretically leaving enough room to get your head through it. Usually it is straight across on the back of the neck, but because of one’s anatomy, the front droops a bit under the neck so it doesn’t end up choking you as long as you BO loosely enough.

This wouldn’t be the type of neckline I would short-row and this st patt does not lend itself well to short-rowing. That’s 2 strikes against short-rowing, so I’d look for other options.

eta - re the bit about short-rowing referring to “increasing” - they’re not talking about inc’ing the total # of sts, they’re talking about working across more and more of the sts in the row. EG if you had 100 sts across the row and were short-rowing in 10 st increments, starting with 10, then you’d knit across 10, leaving 90 sts unworked, turn and purl back 10. Then you’d knit across 20 sts, leaving only 80 unworked, turn and purl back the 20. Then you’d knit across 30, leaving only 70 unworked, and so on, thus “increasing” the # of sts you’re working across in each set, but the # of unworked sts “decreases” at the same time, leaving you with the same # of sts you always had. HTH -

If the front is too high for your comfort and/or you find the wide neckline falling off a shoulder, I would advise undoing shoulder seams, ripping the front back down ~3”, then BO the front neck section, perhaps ~8” wide, then cont working on each side up straight to make a rectangular neck “hole”.

ME:
Huzzah for not short rowing! Procrastination wins again! Although, after your explanation of “increasing”, I may just be one step closer to fully comprehending the beast that is short rows.

(For future reference, how does one decide how many stitch increments to short row? In your example, you say 10 stitch increments; is there a ratio/magic number to figuring this out?)

Am in the process of knitting up the back and will update on whether, once connected, the front is too high and will need ripping back. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it won’t.

SCHROUDERKNITS:

I pulled 10 sts out of my, uh, hat!

You choose the # based on the # of inches more you want x your row gauge, then divided over the # of sts with which you’re working. In the example I was giving, I was only adding short rows at one end, thus would end up with a triangular wedge that was tall at the right edge of the fabric and tapered down at the left end to a point. By dividing that 100 sts into 10 st increments, that adds 20 rows to the right edge and only 2 rows at the left edge. For a row gauge of 7 rpi, that would be almost 3” on the right edge, 1/3” on the left. If I was using thin yarn at 10 rows per inch, then that’s only 2” tall, and so forth.

If you’re following a patt and it gives you specifics on short-rowing, draw some horizontal lines on a piece of paper, the longest one showing the full width of a row, then each subsequent one working only over part of it is rough approximation of the proportions to show you the general shape the short rows will give, then adding completely long lines again at the top to cover all the ups and downs. That will smooth out what otherwise looks like stairsteps, so you’ll see where the fabric slopes up and then down again, or down and then up, or however it’s shaped.