more swatching

My second swatch (on the left) for the big comfy sweater that Lindsey Lohan is wearing in my previous post came out closer to the gauge in the photo. But, I think I am going to go with the look on the right.

On the Left: 24 stitches. 2 x 2 ribbing with size 8 needle. On the last row of ribbing I decreased all the P2 to P1. I switched to a size 11 needle and on the WS row I did a M1 for each of the purls that I would be making on the RS rows. That way, when I dropped those purls (to make all of those ladders) they would stop running when they reached the ribbing.

Are you following me so far?
On the Right: 24 stitches. I made it the same way I did the lefty swatch with the exception that I used a #7 needle on the ribbing and a #10 on the body of the swatch.

I picked this pumpkin colored sweater in my closet to use for those over-sized measurements. My pooch, Minnie, insisted on getting in the picture. I think she looks pretty cute!




Above is my schematic. The swatch is 4" wide at the ribbing (5.33sts = 1")
and 7.5" for the body (3 sts = 1")

The back is one big rectangle and according to my Pumpkin sweater I need to make the ribbing 22" and then increase to 25" wide. With 5.33 (ribbing) stitches to the inch I will need to cast-on 116 stitches (22 x 5.33= 117.2) [this figure turned out to be wrong I ended up with 96 stitches for the cast-on]. I need to chart out where I am going to put the knits and the purls above the ribbing. My interpretation of the sweater I am copying is that the cables are thrown in randomly. I'd like mine to look that way too. I have to be careful and put the drop stitches roughly at the same frequency as the swatch. Too many and my sweater will be too wide!

edit: ugh! I made math errors in the last paragraph, they have been fixed.