Short Row Increases Over Multiple Stitches with Cast On Rag & Ravel Cord

What I would like to do today is talk about increases while short rowing over multiple stitches, using cast on rags & ravel cord. We will be making a panty soaker that is knit in one piece, from the waistband at the back, down through the crotch,  to the waistband at the front. The ribbed leg bands will be like a grafted neck band as it will be knitted directly onto the cover after it is finished. After knitting the ribbed leg bands all that is left to do is sew it up.

For now, we are going to concentrate on the curved area that is short rowed over the thigh. This is what we are making in a Newborn size.

 

 

Okay, I have the back finished to the end of the crotch & am going to start to work on the front crotch that will cover the thigh in the front & knit up to the waist band. First I am going to knit the part of the crotch that is in the beginning center of the front. That is 16 rows on 11 stitches. Our total number of stitches are 59 stitches across the body of the cover so we have to increase 48 total stitches, 24 stitches each side over 6 rows. 12 rows total.(I like to use an odd number of stitches so that the ribbing at the waist looks nice.)We want a curved edge so that we don't want to increase 1 stitch at a time. We will increase multiple stitches across these rows, using our cast on rags & ravel cord. 

 

After we have knit the 16 rows for the beginning of the crotch in the front we are going to increase 4 stitches on the right hand side. To do this, we hang our cast on rag on the 4 stitches next to the end of the 11 stitches that we have for the crotch. Carriage is on the right. When doing multiple increases always increase on the side that the carriage is on. Hang your cast on rag on the 4 stitches that you are going to increase.

 

 

Then, take your ravel cord & knit by hand through these 4 stitches.

 



 Hang a claw weight on the cast on rag. We want these 4 stitches to be closed so that they won't unravel when we take off the cast on rag, so we will e-wrap the 4 stitches with our main yarn. Always e-wrap in the direction that the carriage is going. Since we are working on the right side for now, we will e-wrap going to the left, counter clock wise. It helps it pull the needles that are being e-wrapped to hold position. Have the carriage set to knit all needles.

 

 Then knit across the machine.Check your stitches to make sure it knitted up correctly. When we get to the left side we need to e-wrap the same number of stitches, 4 on that side. First the cast on rag is hung on the 4 stitches, then knitted though with ravel cord by hand.

 

 

Since we want the stitches to be closed, pull them to hold position & e-wrap the 4 stitches over the ravel cord clockwise & hang a weight. 

 

Carriage on the left. Knit across. Carriage on the right. Again we increase 4 of stitches, first hang cast on rag, then ravel cord, knit through by hand, pull needles to hold & e-wrap counterclockwise & knit to the left. Same thing on the left side. Hang cast on rag on 4 stitches, knit through with ravel cord by hand, pull to hold & e-wrap clockwise & knit to the right. Continue in this fashion for the remaining rows, depending on your pattern. You can sometimes increase stitches without the ravel cord & cast on rag but you will not get an edge that is as nice as it is if you use the cast on rag & ravel cord method. You need to have some weight on the stitches for them to look nice. It makes all the difference.

 

 

 

 

Now that we have our short row increases finished we will knit to the waistband, do our ribbing, & cast off with the loop through loop bind off. After that we will have the diaper cover off the machine & will remove our cast on rags by pulling out the ravel cord, & have a nice finished edge.

 

 Determine the number of stitches that we will use for our leg ribbing & hang the finished edge on the machine without stretching too much, purl side facing you. Because of our e-wrap cast on we have a nice edge to hang on the machine. Knit the ribbing the same way you would for a grafted neckband.

 

And here is our finished diaper cover!! This cover will fit a Newborn to about 6 months. I sell these for $18.00 a pair.