With less than a week to go to finish, the pressure is on to finish the yoke of the sweater. Last week I completed the body and the sleeves. Then it was time to add the sleeves to the body of the sweater and knit the yoke. Included in the pictures are the picot hem on the sleeve cuff, KNIT IN just like I did at the bottom of the sweater.
I picked up the stitches along the bottom, 11 at a time, and knit the 2 needles together for just that section. Then I turned the work, and picked up the next 11 stitches.
The second sleeve I actually did in reverse:
1) After casting on 44 stitches, I PURLED the picot edge, and hemmed it the same way as the first one.
2) Then I purled the rest of the cuff.
3) Next, I KNIT a folding edge, then ribbed the next 10 rows as per instructions.
4) Then I was ready to knit the main body of the sleeve, and the cuff could fold up correctly.
You see, on the first sleeve, when I did it the normal way (knitting the rows instead of purling them), I was faced with a decision. I would have had to either purl the entire main body of the sleeve, or figure out a way to change direction in my knitting. With a little fudging, I did the later. However, I decided for the 2nd sleeve, I could purl at the beginning and have things go more smoothly.
The next step was to add the sleeves to the main body of the sweater in this order: front, sleeve, back, sleeve, other front.
I have actually never knit a sweater this way, so this little one was a good way to learn it.
I found the sleeves VERY tight on the needle! I could barely get through the first few rows. But each row decreased 4 stitches, so it got easier. Is it always this way with this technique?
After all the sleeve decreases were done, I began the next picot edge, which was rather like knitting a welt in the middle of the sweater. Below you can see how I’m inserting a size 1 circular needle into the back of the sweater, along the row of light purple on the reverse side.
More decreases, and now I’m starting another welt. Hey, it’s starting to look like a sweater!