I spent the weekend in Baltimore and completely forgot to write this week’s KAL post. What’s more, I didn’t remember that I’d forgotten until late Monday night. Oops. I hope you weren’t eagerly awaiting this installment, with nothing to keep your fingers busy!
At this point, the body of your sweater should be complete and off the needles. Now is the time to start in on the first sleeve. You’ll be taking the live stitches from the scrap yarn, putting them onto double-pointed needles, picking up a few extra stitches from the underarm area, and then knitting in the round until the sleeve is your preferred length.
It can be a challenge to move the sleeve stitches off of the waste yarn and back onto needles, so take your time with it. Try to distribute the stitches somewhat evenly between three of the needles and then use the fourth to pick up and knit the appropriate number of stitches at the underarm.
Move sleeve sts to dpns and pick up sts at underarm as written in the pattern PDF.
Video: Knit Sleeves by Knitting with EliZZZa
Video: Picking up stitches in your work by Knittinghelp.com
Once all of the stitches are safely onto needles, I tend to redistribute them before I start knitting. It’s not necessary, but I like things to be as even as possible.
Reset your row counter to 0.
Knit the first stitch, place a marker (so you don’t lose track of where the rounds begin) and knit the first round.
Work in stockinette stitch for 23 more rounds (24 total) then begin decreasing as follows: *k1, k2tog, knit to last 3 sts, ssk, k1
Repeat decrease round from *, every 14th round, 4 times total (rounds 25, 39, 53, and 67).
After the last decrease round, consider redistributing the stitches on the needles. I like to have a multiple of 4 on each needle – it makes the cuff ribbing simpler later.
Continue in stockinette stitch until sleeve measures 16″.
Work 10 rounds in k2,p2 rib.
Bind off all sts.
Video: How to knit in the round with double-pointed needles by New Stitch a Day
And with that, the first sleeve is complete.
I think you can guess what next week will look like…
Good luck! Let me know if you have any questions or comments.
[…] Luckily, the steps involved in this week’s portion of the KAL are exactly the same as the steps from last week. […]