Are you ready to knit your sleeves?

Once you are ready to knit your sleeves, jump into this discussion and find plenty of company.

Permalink Reply by SewKnitty on September 9, 2009 at 2:05pm: Robin --

Kitchner is a way of "sewing" the live stitches together so it looks like they were knit. It was extremely intimidating the first time I did it because I had no clue what I was doing. I've since read how in several books and it makes way more sense and is actually pretty easy to do. I know that in The Sweater Workshop (by Jacqueline Fee) there is a great explanation of how to do it. That's where it actually made sense to me. It's a book that's well worth both the cost and the effort of making the sample project (which looks oddly like a fish). I've made one sweater without using a pattern and it fits wonderfully. It's just plain stockinette. I'm working up the courage to use cables or some other pattern and make a new one.

Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure that I've used the kitchner method to join sock toes recently. Probably from Cat Bhordi in her New Pathways for Sock Knitters book. If you knit socks that's an excellent book for different ways to make them.

Hope all this helps,

Lisa; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by robdob on September 11, 2009 at 11:18am: Thanks very much, Lisa. I have knit one pair of socks and enjoyed it. They were a twisted pattern with no heel so it was easy. I plan on trying to make a couple more pair. I got on YouTube this week and noticed there was a demo on Kitchener but I didn't watch that one. I did however find out how to do the provisional caston and ended up starting my sleeve all over again. I had seen a video of how Kelly turned her hem edge over and knit it as she was knitting her body or sleeve. Very cool! Anyway I also have seen a couple of Cat Bhordi's videos and really like her. Thanks again, Robin; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by cherylbwaters on September 9, 2009 at 8:21pm: Robin, Kitchener is grafting. Perhaps you know it by that term. Lisa is correct: top down socks usually use the Kitchener stitch to graft the toe. For some reason, I've never had a serious problem with it, maybe because socks were one of the first thing I learned to do. But there are other things I have never been able to get right until joining this group last February. No matter how many times I tried to do a provisional cast on, I always found myself picking out the provisional yarn. Then I joined this group and was determined to learn how to do it for the Montevilla Market Bag. Now I can do it properly. So this group is here to help us expand our skills and to meet new people who share a love for this wonderful art.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by robdob on September 15, 2009 at 3:21pm: I just started my sleeve a couple weeks ago and since I homeschool haven't had as much time to sit and knit. Anyway I just tried Kelly's trick of knitting the cast-on row and the 10th row above the purl row together to create the hemmed edge on the sleeve and loved it. Although it was slow because I was dealing with three circular needles and didn't want to drop any stitches, it was simple and gave me a chance to fit the size of the wrist before working too much of the sleeve. The best part is that it fit my wrist great. That is a great timesaver. I tried the magic loop method, but found the link for the double circular needle method on one of these discussions and really like that the best. Thanks Kelly for the video (and I don't even remember how I got to the video!). Robin; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by robdob on September 30, 2009 at 12:50pm: I posted the same thing in another discussion, but I just finished my first sleeve and CO sleeve two this morning. I'm wondering though how close to the underarm do you go before stopping. I ended up making mine about 17 1/2" and I like mine a little shorter because I'm only 5'2" and short everywhere. I knit the 17" but it seemed a couple inches from my underarm; so panicked that I needed it longer and knit another 1/2" or maybe 1", but still wasn't sure. Help!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by cherylbwaters on September 30, 2009 at 5:57pm: Robin, I am just enjoying the ride on this project. But what I've seen is that the 17" is to your armpit, if that helps any.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by robdob on October 1, 2009 at 10:41am: Cheryl, I know this sounds dumb but I guess my question is, is the sleeve supposed to "touch" the armpit? There must have to be some leeway there. It seems like I should be able to figure this out since I've knit a few sweaters but usually the sleeves are more baggy and not quite so fitted. I'm going to keep working on sleeve 2 and go on to the body and maybe by that time it'll all become obvious to me. Robin; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by cherylbwaters on October 1, 2009 at 11:09am: Here's my thoughts. I would think it would mean to where the armhole on the garment begins. Take a favorite sweater or some sort of outer garment and see where the armhole hits you on your body. You don't want it to where it is too high and cuts off the circulation under your arm and you don't want it too low to where it makes it difficult to raise your arms. Does that make sense? I'm not really a sweater knitter and I'm definitely not trained in design. This is just from personal experience in wearing clothing. LOL

Oh, yes, I almost forgot to mention. Nothing sounds dumb here. This is a place to learn, not chastise.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Maryla Blanco on October 16, 2009 at 9:21am: I began with the sleeves as well, and I'm also done with the last one. Can't wait to start the body. Bought insurance yarn but there's a dye lot issue.....crossing fingers I don't need it.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by cherylbwaters on October 17, 2009 at 6:09am: Oh, wow! Maryla, I love it! Insurance yarn. What a lovely way to justify adding to my stash!

Here's a trick for dye lot issues. Let's say you have a project where you are using 2 skeins of one dye lot and 1 skein of another. You can knit 2 rows using dye lot A and then knit 1 row of dye lot B. Keep repeating. That can help blend things in.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Peggy Stuart on October 18, 2009 at 6:53am: Yes, Maryla, what Cheryl said, only I would do one round of one and one round of another, or else change on the contrast color row. You might do a swatch to see what would work best. --P; ▶ Reply to This