Tag: sleeves

Knit Two Sleeves at a time

Is second sleeve syndrome a thing? If you suffer, here is a solution. Knit both sleeves at the same time on two circular needles.

It’s a messy start, which you know if you have ever attempted to knit two socks at the same time. So here goes.

This is my Lunenburg pullover which I am really anxious to wear. I have done 5″ on both sleeves. It’s going to be a fabulous spring sweater.

Meanwhile, the Twelve-Point Circular Yoke is moving along. I’m past my waist now and have been working some hip shaping on the Back of this sweater. The end of the body is in sight, well, not exactly in sight, but you know what I mean.

Working on only 2 sweaters feels like monogamous knitting to me. I think I need to add another project to be comfortable. Maybe a pair of socks would fill the void. I’m thinking of casting on this week. I think I know which pattern I’m going to use, but I hate to say it because then I’ll probably change my mind, so it will be official once they are on my needles… although a shawl would be nice too. Sigh, so many options.

How about you? Is spring tempting you to cast on?

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by deb

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Good Ol’ Sleeves

I know I’ll be really glad I have long sleeves on this sweater. I know that, but … sleeves, OMG, do they have to take soooo long?

About 4 years ago I started this: Two Sleeves on 2 circs. It’s the same as working socks two at a time. If you’ve done that, this might be for you.

No second sleeve syndrome for me.

So here I am with the purple sleeves of my 6×6 Cardigan. I knit one inch of knitting on each sleeve separately. Then I slipped the stitches of the sleeves onto two circular needles with the underarm sections facing each other. (You might be able to see that one circular has a blue cord and the other has a red cord.) I put a big pin in the fabric at the underarms of the sleeves to hold them in position on the two circular needles. I’m only about 2″ in so far, with many hours ahead of me.

You know that I really, really, want to cast on something new right now. I’m resisting so far. I can do this, I can, I can?!

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free knitting patterns by Deb

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Time consuming but worth it

How long does a sweater of yours  sit unfinished?

This little 4 year sized Family Crew Neck sat for quite a while because I didn’t know how to do the sleeves.

The colour fade yarn was great. I had already bought a second ball to do the sleeves.

I wound off the lime green, yellow and into the orange of the second ball of yarn.

I wound up all the orange into a separate ball. Then, I wound off some of that orange ball to make 2 equal sized balls. I knit one sleeve and then the other until the length of the orange in the sleeve was as close as I could get it to the body.

Then I did the same with the red and then again with the purple.

Yes, it was time-consuming, but I’m really happy with the result.

He likes likes it. He really likes it.

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-free patterns by Deb

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What if … the bust and sleeve could both fit?

What if … the raglan markers on your Top Down sweater were only a guideline for the size of your sleeve and not the exact size of the sleeve?

“Why don’t you knit sweaters for yourself?” I have asked this question of a lot of knitters. The answer, quite often, is that the sleeves never fit. A lot of knitting pattern sizes are based primarily on the measurement around your bust. If your bust measurement and your arm measurement don’t agree with the size chart the designer is using, then you are not getting a good fit.

This is one of the problems I wanted to solve in the adult sizes of my series of Any Gauge Raglan patterns. I have written these patterns for one person at a time – you. You don’t have to compare yourself to a size chart.

In these patterns, you take your bust measurement and arm measurement with a tape measure, and, after converting to the number of stitches, make the raglan yoke to these measurements (Bust + Arm + Arm). Yes, when you finish the yoke,it would fit you like a second skin.

Then you put the exact number of stitches for your arm on spare yarn for your sleeve.

Here is the bottom of my Family Crew Neck yoke with one set of sleeve stitches on spare (red) yarn.

My sleeve stitches on the spare yarn are inside the raglan markers.

In this case my sleeve stitches are 6 sts narrower (1.25″ narrower) than where the raglan markers would indicate. Whether the sleeve stitches end up inside or outside the raglan markers depends on where the markers are set up in the neckline and the size of your arm, of course.

But it fits like a second skin? How is that going to work?

Wait, there’s more. Cast on the number of stitches you need for the amount of ease you want on the body. It could be anywhere between 4″- 7″ or even more, if you wish. Cast on 1/2 the ease at one underarm and the other 1/2 at the other underarm.

Now this sweater body has been knit to your specific measurements at the bust and arm. Ease has been added. This sweater body will fit you and only you.

Is this a really radical idea? Questions?

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

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Sleeves that fit

I’ve asked a lot of knitters “why don’t you knit sweaters for yourself?” Quite often the answer was that the sleeves don’t fit.

It’s easy enough to work out which size to knit according to your bust measurement but it is another thing to also have the correct sleeve size you need, in the same pattern. So …

My “Any Gauge” sweater patterns have a correction for this common problem: the raglan lines are used as a guide only. They indicate the general placement of the sleeves but do not necessarily give the exact width of the sleeve.

In my latest Family Crew Neck, the sleeve size I want, indicated by the orange markers, is a little wider than the raglan lines.

The pattern is set up to do this. Just before The Great Divide, you place the removable markers (orange) on the circular needle at the exact width you need for your sleeves. They can be inside the raglan lines for a narrower sleeve than the raglan lines indicate, exactly at the raglan lines in the usual way, or outside the raglan lines, like this pullover. The stitches between the orange markers are now the sleeve. Here’s a close-up.

I’m not stealing stitches from the body. The body will still be exactly what I need it to be. The pattern is written in a way to allow for all this variation, to fit both your bust and your arms. It’s working for all the pullovers I’ve knit so far, so I’m quite confident it will also work for you.

One more bit of weird knitting just for you. Enjoy.

Deb

Family Crew Neck pullover

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Two Sleeves on 2 circs

I ran across an idea, from Socks Soar on Two Circulars by Cat Bordhi, where she knits a sock on two circular needles instead of many double pointed needles. If you can knit one sock, why not two socks? So I tried it. I found it easier than I thought it might be and better for me than using the Magic Loop technique.

I put a photo up on instagram and my friend Nancy mentioned that she knits 2 sleeves at the same time. I was knitting away on my newest top down sweater and thinking, two sleeves at the same time, two sleeves at the same time. Wait one friggin’ minute. Could I knit 2 sleeves at the same time on a Top Down sweater? I just happen to have one with 2 sleeves to knit so …

… there they are. Two sleeves being knit at the same time, on 2 circular needles with 2 balls of wool. It took some fiddling to get them going. OK, it took more than a little bit of fiddling but there they are. I’m amazed. It’s not that hard. Really it wasn’t that bad.

They work a little bit differently than the socks did because there is a whole knitted sweater body there too. I had to move the beginning of the round to the middle so the body didn’t get too munched. The orange marker in the fabric of the left sleeve is there to indicate the beginning of the round for both the sleeves. It only matters for the decrease round.

I’m finding this quite satisfying to do. Here’s my progress so far.

You’ll see at the bottom there, that they are still on the two circs. When I’m working on the sleeves I use a safety pin to hold the sleeves close to each other but I wanted to see how they were looking. Not bad, eh?

Do you know that auto-correct does not like the word circ. It wants to make it all kinds of other things. Isn’t circ a word? It is to me.

Stay safe and keep on keeping on, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

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Place Sleeves for Any Gauge Raglans

When you knit a Top Down sweater, you choose the size using your bust measurement. Do the sleeves always fit? They quite often don’t for me.

I think I have solved this problem in the Any Gauge Raglan sweater series. I’m very excited to present the first one. This is a recipe style pattern where you do some math and work according to your own gauge. Tight knitter, loose knitter, it doesn’t matter. Your particular gauge matters.

I’ve started the Any Gauge Raglan series with a baby sizes, Newborn to 4 year old size:  Any Gauge Raglan Baby

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What prompted this idea? As a designer, I would usually choose a set of sizes for the Body and Sleeves for each pattern. I would look at the set of sizes and work out the number of stitches needed for the Front, Back and Sleeves at the Bottom of the Yoke. Then I would work backwards up to the neckline to decide on the number of stitches for the neckline for all the sizes. The finished sleeve size dictates how wide the top of the shoulder is at the neckline.

But what if I want a particular shape of neckline? In this case I wanted a rectangular neck opening with a wide shoulder.

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The size of the shoulders on these neck openings is wide so that there is a drop down the front and back of the neck. After working all the yoke increases the sleeve may not be the proper size for the sleeve you need.  Oh, no, what to do?

What if … we used the Raglan lines as a guide only? What if … your actual sleeve needed could be wider or narrower than the Raglan Markers indicate? I mean, really, are the Raglan Markers set in stone?

I made a video to explain:  Place Sleeves on Any Gauge Raglans

This takes a particular set up which I am working on in the Any Gauge Raglan sweater series. I’m very excited to present the Any Gauge Raglan Baby/Toddler Pullover.

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Use ANY YARN you want. Go ahead, dive into your stash and pick the perfect colour in any weight of yarn you have. Cast On and knit any size up to 4 years old.

What do you think of this idea? All comments, questions and photos are welcome. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts.

Thanks for reading,

Deb

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Raglan Sleeve Freedom

Have you ever checked the measurement of your arms? Does the sleeve of every sweater you knit come out correctly for you? Is that stopping you from knitting for yourself?20180809_112733

We use the bust measurement to choose a sweater size to knit but does that mean that the corresponding sleeve is going to fit also? As I age I find I need larger sleeves than many patterns will give me, especially if the pattern is written by someone younger and smaller. If you are busty you may find that you need a narrower sleeve than the pattern is going to give you. If you are plus sized you definitely need to check your arm size against the schematic to check the fit.

Continue reading “Raglan Sleeve Freedom”