Knitting the sleeves on my Audrey took longer than I expected, waaaay longer!  I was stuck on Sleeve Island for so long that funny things were happening to my knitting mojo.  But we’re back on track now, my mojo and I. When I’ve knit a couple more rows of the button bands, this cardigan is going to be done!  I have yet to track down buttons and get the blocking board out to officially finish, but the knitting’s almost done, hooray!

This was my first time knitting set-in-sleeves top-down.  Sounds technical, huh???  Set in sleeves, in my opinion, give a much tailored look to any knitted garment.  But now that I’ve discovered the joys of top-down-try-as-you-go knitting, knitting the sleeves separately and then attaching them to the body always has me throwing a hissy fit.  This happens when I realize that the two pieces just don’t want to merge.  Thus ending up with a sleeve that looks squishy and puckered at the seam where most certainly a vast amount of fudging has taken place.  Square peg – round hole syndrome! 

The solution :: set-in sleeves that are knit top down using short rows.  Genius! 

The best part is that the math involved in this process is minimal aaaaaand….you get to try it on as you knit, knit, knit – giving you the perfect sleeve cap-armsyce marriage!  No ugly, puckered seams!!

Audrey in Unst has this very sleeve construction.  Now, there’s no turning back for me in the sleeve department!

*Please excuse the very blurry pics taken by 11-year-old who was already out the door to school when his mommy dragged him back in to take pictures of her sleeve.         **And please also ignore the fact that said mommy is in her PJs!!

9 thoughts on “Goodbye Sleeve Island

  1. fridica

    I also got stuck on Sleeve Island with my Liesl and was in serious danger of completely losing my mojo, but luckily I put it aside and went for other projects until I can muster the sleeves… Your sleeves are gorgeous! I’ll have to give this technique a try!

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  2. Kelly

    Geez those jammies don’t look like my fuzzy, covered in cutsie characters jammies 🙂 I never would have known. Audrey is looking good. I too hate set in sleeves so hopefully the short rows will make all the difference.

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  3. Pearlin J

    I donot know any of the technical knitting stuff but those sleeves look so neat ;beautiful colour too. I wouldn’t have known the pictures were taken by Prithvi if you had not mentioned it 🙂

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