Design Week Day 2: Techniques

Today's Design Week post is about techniques (if you missed yesterday's post, about sketches, check it out here).  I'll be making a dolman sleeved sweater for spring/summer and when seeing these sweaters online and in stores, I was a little daunted by the task of trying to figure out how to put this together.  However, when I actually sat down and did some research into the techniques for completing this type of design, I discovered that it's really not that difficult.  There aren't any complicated increases or decreases for shaping -- it's basically one big rectangle with two smaller rectangles on either side.  I discovered that I could make this two main ways:

• Crocheted (or knitted) from the bottom up to the arm, increase on either side for the arms, crochet up to the neck, create an opening for the neck, continue down the back to underneath the arms, decrease back to torso width and finish crocheting to the end.  
• Crocheted (or knitted) from side to side, starting with sleeve width, increase on either side to account for body length, crochet to the neck opening and work body length on either side of the neck opening, rejoin to crochet all together until sleeves, decrease for the sleeves and crochet sleeve to the end

With both techniques, you're completing the sweater flat and then seaming up the sides and under the arms.  Also, there isn't any neckline shaping, it's just a simple, wide opening that drapes a little because of its width.  I know this maybe hard to understand in words, so I thought I would put together a quick drawing to explain the two ways to construct this.

I decided that I'll be constructing this from the bottom up because I think the neckline will be easier to put together.  I decided that I'll be using primarily half double crochets (HDCs) for the stitching with some variations to create a more interesting look for the upper body part of this.  The main part up to the sleeves will be HDC.  I put together a swatch today:

Can't wait to get going on this a bit more!  To see what other designers are up to, visit Fresh Stitches.