I haven't (yet) done a top-down sweater myself, so I am speaking from a theoretical understanding here.
That said, for the button band:
you could knit circularly, steek, and pick up for a band
you could knit back and forth and pick up for a band
you could knit back and forth with an included band, like I think you're describing here- where the "band" is more of a detailing thing than a structural thing
you could knit and make an included hem (aka facing) to reinforce and at structure to the band
My understanding with cardigans is that picking up for the band gives it structure enough to support the weight of the buttons better and hang better when open. This could be achieved with the hem, too. Whether you think you need this probably depends on the size and weight of the buttons you want to use.
If you decide to do the included band with no extra structural components, I would personally decide how wide to make it by picking out what size of button to use and making the band wide enough to look pleasing with the buttons.
For the back, it sounds like you're concerned about it being too large below the shoulderblade/armhole area? If that's the case, you could:
do paired decreases near the center back, as a design detail
do paired decreases in the "princess seam" or "waist dart" areas- midway between the center back and the sideline (this is a little hard to describe if you aren't too familiar with garment design, but there's a good picture of it in Stephanie Japel's Spicy Fitted V-Neck Tee)
do decreases at the sideline, where you'd do them on a seamed sweater
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Date: 2011-08-03 08:29 am (UTC)That said, for the button band:
My understanding with cardigans is that picking up for the band gives it structure enough to support the weight of the buttons better and hang better when open. This could be achieved with the hem, too. Whether you think you need this probably depends on the size and weight of the buttons you want to use.
If you decide to do the included band with no extra structural components, I would personally decide how wide to make it by picking out what size of button to use and making the band wide enough to look pleasing with the buttons.
For the back, it sounds like you're concerned about it being too large below the shoulderblade/armhole area? If that's the case, you could:
I like the cable motif idea though. :)
I constructed a Ravelry search for adult-sized women's cardigans, top-down construction, that are available for free. If you want to see what others have done, this might be useful to you?
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/search#craft=knitting&view=captioned_thumbs&availability=free&fit=adult%2Bfemale&pa=top-down&sort=best&pc=cardigan
I'd love to see pictures (either complete or progress photos)!