Dawn Brocco's Life & Design Blog

This is the last segment of the Fana KAL - working the neck edging and finishing.

Now there is no center front st. Instead, we will begin picking up and knitting, with blue and using the longer ckn, into the first right front center st (the st in the row below the first decrease, as this st will be used up in the sewing in.)

Continue along right front edge, picking up and knitting 42 more sts = approx 3 sts for every 4 rows.

Pick up and knit 1 st in corner, 40 sts across back neck, 1 st in corner and 43 sts down left front edge = 128 sts.

Now, when knitting up along the back neck into those BO sts, I usually just knit up into the BO edge. In this sweater, it looked better to knit up into the last row of sts below the BO. This way, you can get the checkerboard patterning to line up over the body's pattern.


As we want a purl ridge before beginning the checkerboard patt, turn and knit the next WS row.

Now to set up the checkerboard patt. 128 sts ÷ 6-st rep = 21.33 reps or 21 x 6 = 126 sts with 2 sts left over.

Again, as with the sleeve we'll use 1 of these extra sts both at the beginning and end of the row, for use in seaming the edging down later.

So, I began with blue and ended with natural, but you can follow the chart exactly, and begin with white and end with blue.

K4 blue, (k3 natural. k3 blue) across, ending with k4 natural, turn. Work patt in stockinette for 2 more rows, then exchange colors for 3 rows, then change back for 3 rows, just as in the rest of the sweater.

This brings us to just finishing a RS row. Break the natural.

We need 4 rows of blue garter stitch, so beginning with the next WS row, purl across for 4 rows. (Yes, it's a pain to have to purl the garter stitch rows, instead of knit, but the row rep of the checkerboard patt forces us.) BO in purl on the next WS row, leaving a long-ish tail (12") for the seaming.

Tuck the left front neck edge under the right front neck edge. Using the tapestry ndl, and the yarn end, pull to the WS through the 2 layers and tack down the inside edge.

Bring the yarn tail to the front, in the corner. Butt the top-lying edge up against the purl ridge and sew it down along that extra knit st.


Here's the neck, pre-blocking.


My checkerboard tends to dimple - blocking fixes it. If your edge won't lie as flat as you prefer, unzip a few rows of the garter stitch and decrease some sts evenly across. I would probably take off about 5% - 10%. My neckline lays a little open, which I like. I don't like that strangling feeling!

And those with eagle eyes can see that my sewing in needs to be improved! The middle and outermost check areas show an extra half stitch showing, that shouldn't be. I need to redo that.

Sew your underarm seams. I use a running stitch, but you can slip stitch crochet them together as well.

Weave in your yarn ends.

Soak the sweater in warm water and your favorite detergent or wool wash (though I think for the first washing of a millspun sweater, detergent or soap is better than the no-rinse wool wash formulas.) Rinse same temperature, then spin out the water in the spin-ONLY cycle of your washing machine. Lay flat to dry, patting to shape.

Labels: Fana, KAL