Hitofude KAL

There are enough folks wanting to knit Hitofude that we’ll all do it together and we’ll start knitting on February 1. I’m going to go a bit ahead of you so I can be ready to explain any problems you may encounter. Here’s what you need to do before February 1:

First, do not panic. Every single thing I read about the pattern before starting it caused me to panic. I kept saying . . if over 4,000 people can make this pattern, often more than once, then so can I.

• Get your pattern.
• To determine your size, it’s a bit odd. I recommend reading what JuliaYork wrote about measuring. Read through her notes, measure according to her notes, and then go up or down a size as needed. If you need help, don’t panic . . holler at me and we’ll get through it together. Remember . . DO NOT PANIC!
• Look at how various folks made their Hitofudes longer. Mariko made hers longer and has good notes. There are lots of good notes about how to make it longer but you need to decide if you want to make it longer and how much longer . . then you’ll need to adjust your yardage accordingly.
• Get your yarn.  Be sure  to decide how much longer you’re going to make it and increase your yardage as best you can figure.
• There are over 4,000 folks who have made or are making Hitofude so you can look through those projects and see what yarns you like. I’m not sure how it would look in anything other than a solid or a tone on tone but I’m sure there are some out there that are not solid.
• Swatch! As you’re swatching, pay attention to how many stitches you’re knitting on the right side and where your yarnovers are and then when you are on the back side and purling across, except for the two in the middle, count and IF you have a mistake, you’ll catch it right away on that back side.  Think about that as you’re doing your swatch because it will be really important to check your work as you go when you’re working on the real thing.
• Stitch Markers – I found it quite helpful to put stitch markers after every repeat so I’d know right off if I had a problem . . too many stitches or too few stitches . . before getting to the end of the row and not being able to do a complete pattern repeat.  The pattern calls for 4 markers (one near each side and on between each side and back). For those 4, I used some nice glassy type markers. For the row markers, I used anything I could find . . just so they were obviously different from the 4 markers required by the pattern. Also, at one point, we need a beginning of round marker so that needs to be something different. Anything that you want to use but it’s a whole lot easier if you have 4 of one kind, 1 of another kind and 20 or so of another kind of marker.

We’ll talk more about markers later but here’s a photo of mine right now. See the pink thicker markers – one on the left edge, one just right of the center and one over near the right edge of the photo? There’s one more farther to the right. These are the markers suggested by the pattern. All the others are marking each repeat. Don’t worry if this doesn’t make sense.  All I want you to know now is that you need a variety of markers.

This is the swatch I did for the current Hitofude.

Here’s a tentative plan for the knitting. Feel free to work ahead if you’d like but this is the basic order in which we will be working.

February 1 – Cast on and work through set up rows. Work on sleeves. This is on page 2, where it says “BEGIN PATTERN”  and depending on  your size, you will work 11 – 16 repeats.

February 20 – Underarm Seams and Ribbing.

March 1 – Lower Body through The Chart A repeats (This is on page 4, “BEGIN PATTERN”). We will work up to “BEGIN FRONT BODY INCREASES.”

March 15 – Begin Front Body Increases – Work through Chart B.

March 20 – Work through Chart C.

March 25 – Work through Chart D.

March 30 – Work through Chart E.

All that’s left will be some ribbing and binding off. Once you’ve finished up through Chart E, you’re good for the ribbing and binding off!

I’m going to add a box to the right sidebar with links that you can refer back to.

If there’s anything I need to do to make this easier, please let me know. I want this to be a fun and amazing knit for all of you. I think there will be a bit of frustration but I think you’re going to LOVE knitting this sweater.