EPS and the Button Panel Pullover

I have been knitting despite my lack of writing about it for a few days. The new project is named Button Panel Pullover, found in 60 More Quick Baby Knits by Cascade Yarns.

A completed Button Panel Pullover

The front panel can be completely removed and from my POV this design will be easy to get baby in and out. And if I do it right I should be able to knit a couple of panels so just in case there's an accident a new panel can be placed on the back of the pullover. Instant clean up with no fuss.

Here's my panel placed on top of the black background

My version is being knit in black acrylic yarn with a panel in one of my favorite variegated blue/purple/yellow black colour combinations. I think it is masculine yet speaks of baby boy and since the baby boy I'm making this for is a big boy, I'm going with the 12 month size hoping it will fit him for a bit of time.

The only dynamic is the yarn I'm using doesn't meet the gauge in the pattern, which really is OK since the pattern uses inches instead of number of rows or stitches to size the sweater. And this all works except for the sleeves. The sleeves are sized by a number of stitches, so something different had to be done to figure out how to insure they are the right size.

During my recent adventure reading about Elizabeth Zimmermann I read about her EPS system (EPS stands for Elizabeth's Percentage System). This is a formula based on the number of stitches around the largest part of the sweater. This number is K standing for the "key number." With K it is possible to determine, using the number of stitches your yarn yields per inch, the exact number of stitches you need to create the right sized sleeves.

I've determined how many stitches I need using my bigger/thicker yarn and will share more about the sleeve adventure as it develops. If you want to learn more about how to use the EPS system follow this link. And here's one more shot of how my Button Panel Pullover looks so far (Mike has been inspecting it so you can see a couple of his very white hair on this very black sweater).

The two pieces separated

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