INCREASE EVENLY ALONG A ROW USING EXCEL

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Copyright: studio-miranda

Before we start, you need these figures:
SC: starting stitch count
DC: desired stitch count
IC: the increase count, ie difference between SC and DC.
Note: if working flat, make sure you don't include your edge stitches in these counts.

Example numbers:
SC = 56
DC = 78
IC = 22
First, understand the problem. In most cases of course your starting stitch count won't divide neatly by your increase count and you'll be left with a possibly large remainder – the extra stitches left at the end of the row if you rounded down your increase interval to the next whole number. (For instance, 56/22 gives you a remainder of 12.) With sleeve shaping, I spread those extra rows out over the bottom of the sleeve, slightly lengthening the decrease intervals and reducing the slope of that portion. But this time, I don't particularly want to have all my extra stitches lopsidedly spread out on one side of a single row – I want them spread evenly across the row.

To achieve this, I plan to alternate between two different increase intervals (the basic interval, and that interval plus one of the "remainder" stitches). Ie, my pattern will have an instruction to repeat "m1, kA, m1, kB".

So let's get started.

1. Halve IC (HC) to find out how many increase repeats we need – how many times we'll work that "m1, kA, m1, kB" repeat.

Excel formula: =IC/2
Example: 22/2=11
2. Divide the starting count by this halved increase count. This gives you the number of total stitches in each increase repeat; call it total repeat, or TR.

Excel formula: =SC/HC
Example: 56/11=5
3. Within each of these repeats you need to increase two stitches. So halve TR and round up and down to get your higher and lower increase intervals (HI and LI), respectively – ie the number of whole stitches between increases. If TR is an even number, HI and LI will be equal.

Excel formulas: =ROUNDUP(TR/2,0) and =ROUNDDOWN(TR/2,0)
Note: the 0 means that we are rounding to zero decimal points.
Example: 2 and 3
4. Time to see what's left over if we work this repeat along the row – the remainder (RM).

Excel formula: =MOD(SC/HC)
Example: 56/11 leaves a remainder of 1.
5. Stick this number at the very start of your row or round, and you're done!

Your pattern instructions will look like this (assuming a plain knit row):

K RM, (m1, LI, m1, HI) to end.
Example: K1, (m1, k2, m1, k3) to end.

Bonus tip: If you have a reasonably sized remainder, you could take a few of those stitches over to the end of your row, for better balance. It's not practical to include instructions for that in a multiple-sizes pattern, though.