Stash Buster Colour Play
I made my first Tunisian crochet Stash Buster Blanket a few years ago, and I’ve loved it ever since. It’s a colourful, cozy throw that folds over the armchair or couch, and then gets dragged all over the place to become the roof of a ‘den’ or a ‘seashore’ in the kids’ ‘fairy land.’ I love cuddling underneath this blanket, but a more profound enjoyment comes from looking carefully at the colours and seeing how they interact and combine.
Recently I found my big, wooden Tunisian hook – this baby is 19mm! I was stress-knitting my way through a dozen simple projects and decided it was a good moment to begin another Stash Buster Blanket. The pattern by Stitch Diva Studios contained all the information I needed to have LOADS of fun. The simple Tunisian crochet stitch pattern, when worked with colour changes, makes an exquisite fabric.
Perhaps the most difficult part of this project is having enough stash that you’re ready to part with. This one is perhaps most suitable for those who work in the yarn industry and find themselves drowning in single skeins and leftovers. (The queen-sized version I just finished weighs 6 lbs/2.75kg!) Hand-dyers, yarn shop owners, and fellow knit designers: if you have a stash-overgrowth problem, this project is sure to help!
If you’ve determined that you have enough stash to throw at this big bad boy, the only other problem to tackle is colour selection. My first Stash Buster Blanket used greys throughout as one of the strands, though the greys I chose began with blacks and charcoals and transitioned to light grey. Against this base strand, I worked the other two in blocks of navy, teal, and sky blue, and then wine, bright red, and a variety of oranges.
For my new blanket, I followed a similar strategy – this time using deep blues throughout as one of the three strands. Against this, I worked blocks of light blue, deep blue, yellow, and gold.
I decided to use dark navy blues for the deepest tones this time around because, years ago, I heard colour master Kaffe Fassett say that black, grey, and white don’t add life to colourwork. He suggested using other colours instead. Although I find it easy to make colours work with neutrals like grey and black, I’ve kept this tip in mind over the years and wanted to challenge myself with it for this project.
Making these blankets is definitely an investment in my colour knowledge – an opportunity to sharpen my colour appreciation and intuition. It allows me to see the effects of different colours on each other, in many different combinations. In this case, I see how lovely it is when a crisp, golden fleck emerges among cool grey-blues and deep, purply navies. I see how a single strand of yellow adds interest and vividness to a field of blues on blues. And I see the way a subtle string of purple enlivens the entire palette even further.
A playful project like this one allows me to discover colour combinations that make me a little delirious with excitement, knowing that each one could be the beginning of a colourwork palette for a new knit. Alexa and I have thought and written about colour often, so if you’d like to deepen your knowledge, check out the posts below.
See our Week of Colour Series for an in-depth exploration of how to select a colourwork palette, from simple monochrome pairs to Fair-Isle style blending.
Learn how to apply colour to stranded knitting motifs in our in-depth study with dozens of examples.
Collect your favourite colour combos! Making a ‘colour file’ of your favourite combinations can help with inspiration when working multi-colour projects.
I hope you’re getting a chance to enjoy colourful combinations on your needles, too! What are some of your favourites?
~ Emily
A Precious Blanket Repair
Blankets are unreasonable projects
Blanket knitting is a unique thing. They are the biggest knitted item I make. They take forever. They take lots of yarn. They can be a pain to hand wash due to their size. But in spite of all of that, I love them. I especially love to knit them for babies. There’s something about a handmade blanket for a little one that’s so very special. This is the story of one such project: Bodhi’s baby blanket.
Something all her own
Bodhi is (and will always be) the baby, so she was destined to have an enviable wardrobe of hand-me-down sweaters from Hunter and Jones. But before I knew who she would become, I wanted to make something for her that would be all her own.
I quickly decided on a Vivid blanket – it’s been one of my favourites ever since Emily designed it. I went to my collection of Tanis Fiber Arts DK and pulled out a fantastic rainbow of yarns. I adore bright, cheery colours for babies! Stitch by stitch, square by square, I made Bodhi her wee blanket, knitting a little bit of love into every inch.
When the big day came, I wrapped my new, little bundle in her bright blanket, and she has used it ever since. It has served as a play mat, a bedspread, a dolly swaddle, a fort…you name it! That blanket has received a lot of love and use over the years.
Disaster
Last year, to my dismay, I found the much loved blanket under Bodhi’s bed with some mothy little holes in it. Nooooooooooooo! I wasn’t ready to let this piece of her childhood go quite yet. I bagged and froze it to get rid of the pesky beasts, and then it was time to ponder the fix. Some of the squares had small holes in the edging; others had large holes in the lace.
In order to fix the blanket, I needed to take it apart. I carefully took out all the whip stitches that held the squares together and assessed each one for damage. I had to re-knit the garter edge on a few squares, and I ended up having to re-knit two squares entirely.
That’s when I decided Bodhi’s baby blanket needed an upgrade. Since I had taken the whole thing apart anyway, it seemed like a good time to make it bigger and more suitable to the needs of a six-year-old.
When I decided I would make Bodhi’s baby blanket bigger, I assumed it would only take a few more squares. (I swear I’m not usually that bad at math.) When I did the actual calculations, I realized I had a much bigger project on my hands. The original blanket was 4′ x 4′ with a total of 16 squares. Expanding it to 5′ x 6′ would require 30 squares. That’s an additional 14 squares – basically just like knitting a whole new blanket! But since I didn’t do the math before I started, I was totally committed. An additional 14 squares were whipped up.
Note: I recently noticed that I use the phrase ‘whipped up’ when referring to a piece of knitting. I think this is a personal delusion. Knitting is super slow. Nothing is really ever ‘whipped up.’ Lols.
Satisfaction
I’m so pleased to have given this blanket a little extra life. It’s now a permanent feature on Bodhi’s bed (and still a popular addition to any blanket fort). It was such a joy to add those extra squares and play with the new colours I had acquired over the last five years.
It was a decidedly different feeling knitting up squares for a human that was already in the world – a child with her own personality and quirks – someone I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know as she becomes herself. As it turns out, my original choice of a bright, cheery spectrum of colours was absolutely perfect for my rainbow-loving Bodhi, who is both bright and cheery herself. This labour of love was well worth the effort, and it brings me great joy to see these two little things I made grow together.
~ Alexa
Handspun Summer Lovin’
Spinning is like an old flame I have a hot rendezvous with every few years. It doesn’t fit into my everyday life, but when we get together, sparks fly! In the same way that I love knitting with speckled yarns, knitting with handspun brings me BIG JOY. And spinning the yarn myself? Well, that’s like adding an extra layer of icing on the cake.
I first learned to spin on a drop spindle in 2008. In 2017, the desire came back stronger than ever, and I bought piles of fibre and a little e-spinner. Now I’m enjoying another summer of mildly illicit handspun pleasures. Ever since I dug into my Precious Stash, I decided I MUST spin the exquisite batts I’d been hoarding away. Spinning is time-consuming as hell, and it doesn’t make much sense to anybody who hasn’t already caught the bug. But I love it SO HARD.
Transforming fluff into stuff is delicious magic
As a designer and maker, I get really excited about completely transforming materials with my own hands. Spinning yarn out of fluff is all about this. The entire process is a sensual pleasure: the selection of fibre, the process of drafting and watching the twist transform fibre into yarn, and the soaking and finishing process. With spinning, you spend so much time enjoying the material before you even cast-on!
Oh, but this love makes no sense
In a fit of anxiety about spending so much time on my spinning obsession, I mentioned to my husband, “Handspun just makes no sense. It takes SO long to make, and then you still have to knit the sweater!” He literally laughed out loud and said, “Emily, you do knitting for a living. Do you know how much sense that makes?” Point taken.
101 rookie mistakes
Alongside the pleasures of spinning have come plenty of surprises. I’m accustomed to being very competent as a knitter, so when I make the most basic of mistakes spinning, I have to laugh at myself – even when I feel like crying over the mess I’ve made!
Like, how the hell did I switch the twist in the middle of a bobbin?! One day while plying, I realized part way through the process that I’d spun half of one bobbin in one direction, SOMEHOW switched the direction of the twist, and spun the remainder of that same bobbin in the opposite direction. So beyond a certain point, it wouldn’t ply with the other bobbin of singles. WHOOPS! That’s a do-over.
Or, how haven’t I spun NEARLY enough for a small sweater?! I recently started a sweater project with 200g of a lovely green batt, which I spun into singles. To stretch the batt farther, I spun the other ply in a coordinating colour. I figured I could make a cropped sweater with about 400g of yarn. A couple of weeks later when the lot was complete, I measured the yardage and discovered that, while it looked and felt like DK weight, there was only around 750 yards of it! At that point, I realized I should google “how much fibre do you need to spin a sweater?” I quickly learned a pretty basic fact: handspun tends to be denser than comparable mill-spun. OOPS! I’ll need to spin 800g of fibre to have enough yarn for my cropped-sweater project. Time to begin again!
Spinning a sweater is my goal!
Alexa and I both like to have at least a dozen (slightly unreasonable) master plans on the go at any given time. So to add to this year’s impractical list, I plan to to spin and then knit a sweater from handspun.
I’m considering knitting a Flax sweater (it’s a free pattern, so check it out!). Or perhaps a Strange Brew sweater because apparently I just can’t stop experimenting with yoke designs. But I might change my mind and make something with a bit of pretty lace, like Windswept or Ironheart.
Because it’s my first time with this kind of project, I’ll spin the yarn first, and then let it tell me what it wants to be, depending on the gauge it knits to, and the colour and texture of the finished yarn. I might even use it to work up a new design! In any case, I know I’ll enjoy every sensuous minute….until we meet again.
Tell me about your spinning adventures
Being new to spinning, I’m most interested in the spinning tales of others. Are you a long-time spinner, or maybe new to the craft? What are your top tips or pitfalls to avoid?
~ Emily
Three Tips for Using Your Precious Stash
Do you have a ‘Precious’ stash? I’m talking about capital ‘P’ precious – that box of yarn, fabric, fibre, or craft supplies that you love so deeply you can’t quite bear to actually use them. You could be working with the most beautiful, sensual, high-pleasure materials that you have carefully squirrelled away. Why aren’t you?
With the world feeling more than a little upside down right now, maybe it’s time to crack out your best vintage and really savour the beautiful things you have at hand. Rummage through your stash of precious yarns, fabric, paper or fibre, and get started making with the special materials you love to bits but are reluctant to use.
Oh, but it’s too ‘Precious’ to actually use
Sometimes I will bring home a yarn, fabric, or fibre that seems too precious – too beautiful or unique to risk damaging, to dare to take it into my hands and transform it. There’s always risk in making – the risk that your skills won’t be up to the material, that you won’t do it justice.
Before I began designing knits professionally, the cost of some supplies made them a luxury for me, and I was nervous about ‘wasting’ or ruining them. Now that I design knits for a living, I literally must cast on for my livelihood. Even so, I still find myself hesitating to use precious items. But to do my work, I need to use all my materials and accept that mistakes are part of the creative process. Skeins may be ‘wasted,’ but the time I spend learning to work with them is never a waste. And whenever I make the leap of confidence and cast on, the joy flows freely!
So what are you waiting for?
I often get stalled by uncertainty, feeling that I’m not quite ‘ready’ enough to dip into my precious stash. But over the years, I’ve found a few tricks that help me cast on or make that first cut.
1. Realize it’s wasted in storage, where it can’t bring you pleasure or improve your life
I like to remind myself of this often, so it feels like I have a responsibility to get my most precious materials out of plastic bags and into daily use.
During my recent wave of comfort knitting, I made a Flax sweater (free pattern!) for my little one, Neve. I combined the leftovers of a handspun yarn with coordinating mill-spun and hand-dyed colours. It was such a joy to work with this precious yarn!
2. Recognize that every project teaches you
I have to remember that I’m actually doing myself a disservice when I avoid working with my precious stash. I tell myself: ‘If you don’t cut into that stack of wool tweeds you’ve been collecting since you moved to Scotland, or if you don’t get started knitting with that sweater’s amount of single-ply Noro yarn that you bought on Vancouver Island back in 2016, you’ll just never learn how best to use those materials.’
I also try to remember that when I make a mess of something on my first try, I am likely to learn a lot and be more prepared for my second, third, and fourth attempts.
3. Remember that the point is pleasure!
The primary purpose of the hobbies I do with my hands is my own pleasure. After all, there are less expensive ways to get things. There are easier ways to give gifts. There are more practical ways to clothe myself and my loved ones. But if you’re like me, making beautiful creations with your own hands is what brings you pleasure – and working with precious materials makes it even better!
~ Emily
How to Knit a Love Note Sweater
This step-by-step tutorial explains how to knit the Love Note sweater: a top-down pullover with a pretty lace pattern at the yoke. Ready to get started? Get your copy of the Love Note pattern here and follow along!
What you’ll learn in this tutorial
We’ve broken the Love Note tutorial into 6 parts. Start at the beginning and work your way through – or just jump to the technique you need help with!
- Yarn choice and sizing: How to choose a fabulous yarn combination and find the right size for you.
- Construction: An overview of the process and how the sweater is constructed.
- Yoke: How to work the provisional cast-on, lace pattern, and raglan increases.
- Body and sleeves: Creating the high-low hem and picking up the sleeves.
- Neckline: How to pick up stitches from the unzipped, provisional cast-on, plus tips for ensuring the perfect fit.
- Finishing: How to finish off your beautiful sweater!
New to knitting lingo? You can find definitions for any abbreviations here.
When you share your Love Note, be sure to use the hashtag #LoveNoteSweater! Surf the #LoveNoteSweater hashtag on Instagram and check out the projects on Ravelry.com to help you decide what colour, yarn, size, and fit will suit you best.
If you’re not already getting our emails, join our list to stay in the loop!
Love Note Sweater: Yarn Choice and Sizing (1/6)
This post is step #1 of the Love Note Tutorial series. Other posts in this series include:
- Yarn choice and sizing (this post): How to choose a fabulous yarn combination and find the right size for you.
- Construction: An overview of the process and how the sweater is constructed.
- Yoke: How to work the provisional cast-on, lace pattern, and raglan increases.
- Body and sleeves: Creating the high-low hem and picking up the sleeves.
- Neckline: How to pick up stitches from the unzipped, provisional cast-on, plus tips for ensuring the perfect fit.
- Finishing: How to finish off your beautiful sweater!
Selecting yarns
Here comes the first fun part: choosing a yarn combination! Our Love Note samples for this tutorial were knit holding a single-ply sock-weight yarn, along with a strand of lace-weight mohair and silk. We used Rainbow Heirloom and La Bien Aimee. (See our in-depth tutorial on mixing mohair lace and sock-weight yarns.) If you’d rather not use mohair, you could hold together a sock with a different sort of lace-weight yarn – or just use a DK weight yarn. Worsted or aran-weight yarn will work, too, but the fabric will be heavier, giving the garment a significantly different drape.
Yardage note: Our sizing and yardage table lists yarn requirements for combined yarn, so if your size calls for 600 yds, it will require 600 yds of both the sock-weight yarn and 600 yds of lace-weight mohair yarn.
When it comes to sizing, we’ve designed the Love Note to include plenty of positive ease – we recommend between 4″ and 12″. This sweater has a relaxed fit, and the loosely knit fabric is fabulously drapey!
What is positive ease? This means the finished sweater will measure 4″-12″ more than your actual chest measurement. For more information on ease and choosing a sweater size, check out our sizing post here.
Nina (left) is wearing Love Note size M with 7.5″ of positive ease; this means the sweater is 7.5″ larger than her actual bust measurement. Aimee is wearing size XL-XXL with 10″ of positive ease.
Once you’ve chosen your yarn and desired size – and knit a gauge swatch to confirm that you’re achieving the pattern gauge of 16 sts & 24 rounds / 4” in stockinette stitch – you’re ready to cast on!
If you use Ravelry.com, add this project to your Projects page, so you can keep all your notes in one place for easy reference… and so we can see your sweater when it’s done!
Next step
The next post in this series is about the Construction of the Love Note Sweater. Head there now!
Love Note Sweater: Construction (2/6)
This post is step #2 of the Love Note Tutorial series. Other posts in this series include:
- Yarn choice and sizing: How to choose a fabulous yarn combination and find the right size for you.
- Construction (this post): An overview of the process and how the sweater is constructed.
- Yoke: How to work the provisional cast-on, lace pattern, and raglan increases.
- Body and sleeves: Creating the high-low hem and picking up the sleeves.
- Neckline: How to pick up stitches from the unzipped, provisional cast-on, plus tips for ensuring the perfect fit.
- Finishing: How to finish off your beautiful sweater!
Love Note garment construction
The Love Note sweater has a ‘top-down’ construction. This means that it starts at the neckline and is knit down to the hem and cuffs. It’s also knit ‘in the round,’ which means you’ll knit around and around, rather than knitting back and forth in rows and then sewing the pieces together at the end. The result is a seamless sweater.
The yoke is knit first – from the neckline, down through the lace band and a small section of raglan increases – to the point where the yoke separates for the body and sleeves.
The body is also knit in the round, downwards, with a section of short rows that adds length to the back body section. This creates the ‘high-low’ hem detail. Note: the high-low hem is optional, and step #4 will guide you through it.
Sleeves are worked from the underarm in rounds, down to the cuffs. They aren’t shaped until you reach the cuff, where stitches are decreased for a gentle gather detail. Lastly, the collar is picked up, a decrease round is worked, and ribbing is added.
Next step:
Now that you have your road map, it’s time to cast on! The next step in this series is the yoke. Head there now!
Love Note Sweater: Yoke (3/6)
This post is step #3 of the Love Note Tutorial series. Other posts in this series include:
- Yarn choice and sizing: How to choose a fabulous yarn combination and find the right size for you.
- Construction: An overview of the process and how the sweater is constructed.
- Yoke (this post): How to work the provisional cast-on, lace pattern, and raglan increases.
- Body and sleeves: Creating the high-low hem and picking up the sleeves.
- Neckline: How to pick up stitches from the unzipped, provisional cast-on, plus tips for ensuring the perfect fit.
- Finishing: How to finish off your beautiful sweater!
Cast-on
For a perfect fit at the neckline, begin with a provisional cast-on. This means you’ll come back after knitting the remainder of the sweater and finish the neckline later. Why? Because the neckline is, in this sweater, the most critical point for achieving the fit you want. The entire garment ‘hangs’ from this point, so a comfortable neckline is a must.
We tend to use either the crochet chain provisional cast-on method or the needle and hook method. There are other provisional cast-on options out there – use whichever method pleases you.
Plain rounds and increases
After casting on, follow your size instructions, knitting in the round and working increase rounds until you reach the section titled ‘Lace Pattern.’ It helps to count your stitches before proceeding to the lace section – to double check that you have the correct number.
There are many types of increases out there, and lots of them will work just fine for this sweater. We like to use an m1 increase.
A note about circular needle length: When you find your stitches are too ‘bunched up’ on your needle, it may be time to switch to a longer circular needle. Some knitters prefer their stitches packed on the needles, while others like them a little more spread out. Do what works for you!
Lace section
Now you’re ready to work the lace section. You can follow either the lace chart or the chart’s text instructions. This lace pattern has increases (yarn-overs) and decreases (k2tog, ssk, and sl1-k2tog-psso) on every round. Note: there are no ‘plain’ rounds in between, like some patterns have.
If you’re new to lace knitting, you might want to check out our tutorials on how to read a knitting chart or how to knit lace. If any of the techniques are new to you, click the links to learn more: k2tog, ssk, sl1-k2tog-psso. Just don’t fret! If you take it step by step, we’re confident you can tackle this as your very first lace project.
Moving the marker
One of the ‘tricky’ bits about this lace pattern is a shift in the beginning of round (BOR), which occurs at the beginning of round 5. Each time you come to the start of round 5, remove the BOR marker, k1, and then replace the BOR marker. This shifts the BOR over by 1 stitch. Then, work round 5 as described in the chart or the written instructions (starting with k4, yo, k1, yo, etc.). This is necessary because the final instruction of the repeat is a double decrease (sl1-k2tog-psso), which will require that ‘extra stitch’ that you just moved to the other side of the BOR. Don’t worry too much about how it works. If you follow these instructions precisely, it WILL work.
Note: If you’ve placed extra markers to note each repeat of the lace pattern, you’ll need to shift each of these markers in round 5.
This BOR shift occurs each time you work round 5, and the marker never moves back.
Once you have worked the number of chart repeats for your size, the lace band is complete. You’ve nearly finished the yoke! There are just a few more rounds before you can move on to the body and sleeves.
Next, you’re going to work one last increase round before beginning the raglan rounds.
Increase round 3: knit, increasing 4 (0, 8, 4, 4, 4, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 8, 20) sts, evenly spaced.
For an ‘evenly spaced’ instruction, divide the number of stitches you have by the number of stitches you want to increase – that will give you the interval at which you will increase. It’s not critical that these increases come exactly evenly spaced. You just want to avoid having them all really close together.
Example: You are knitting the 6-8 yr size. You have 168 sts, and you need to increase 4 sts. 168 divided by 4 = 42.
This means you’ll want to increase a stitch every 42 sts, so you’ll work [k42, m1] four times.
There’s a note here that says ‘BOR is located at centre back.’ This means that the location of the BOR is at the point in the yoke that corresponds with the centre of your back. This is useful to know because it may help you visualize what comes next.
Raglan shaping
There’s a short section that increases a few more stitches and adds a few rounds to the yoke. First, work a set-up round, placing 4 place markers (PMs) on the needles in between stitches. These markers indicate where the raglan increases will occur.
Raglan increase round: [knit to 1 st before marker, m1, k1, SM, k1, m1] 4 times, and then knit to end [8 sts inc].
This means you’ll knit from the BOR to the point where one stitch is remaining before the first marker. At this point, you’ll m1, knit the last stitch before the marker, slip the marker (SM) from one needle to the other, k1, and then m1 once more.
For the m1, we like to use an m1R before the marker and an m1L after the marker, but whichever increase method you like best is just fine, too!
Because the instructions are in square brackets [instructions], you’ll repeat those instructions a total of 4 times, and then knit to the end of round (BOR). One round increases the stitch count by 8 sts. Work the Raglan increase round as many times as called for by your size.
Note: There are no ‘even’ knit rounds between raglan increases in this design, as you may have seen in other raglan patterns.
Next step
Congratulations! Your yoke is complete. The next step in this series is body and sleeves. Head there now!
Love Note Sweater: Body and Sleeves (4/6)
This post is step #4 of the Love Note Tutorial series. Other posts in this series include:
- Yarn choice and sizing: How to choose a fabulous yarn combination and find the right size for you.
- Construction: An overview of the process and how the sweater is constructed.
- Yoke: How to work the provisional cast-on, lace pattern, and raglan increases.
- Body and sleeves (this post): Creating the high-low hem and picking up the sleeves.
- Neckline: How to pick up stitches from the unzipped, provisional cast-on, plus tips for ensuring the perfect fit.
- Finishing: How to finish off your beautiful sweater!
Separate body and sleeves
You separate the body and sleeves by knitting around on the body stitches, casting on underarm stitches, and placing stitches on hold for the sleeves of your sweater (which will be completed later). Follow the step-by-step instructions, as illustrated below.
We recommend putting the sleeve sts on waste yarn; this will keep them flexible while you work on the body. For help with this technique, see our post explaining how to place sts on waste yarn. When we cast on stitches for the underarm, we use the backwards loop method.
Once the separation round is complete, there are only body stitches on the needles. From here, just knit around and around until you reach the stated length for either a cropped or longer sweater! It’s very easy to adjust the Love Note to be longer or shorter as you see fit. (Alexa has both a short, cropped version and a longer version in her wardrobe.)
High-low hem
Once you have knit your desired length, it’s time to create the high-low hem. It’s a cute detail, but you can choose to skip it if you prefer. To create a high-low hem, you’ll knit a wedge of fabric that has more rows at the back than the front. This is where short rows come in. The marker is located at the centre back of the sweater, so the short rows are worked symmetrically around that marker.
If you are new to short rows, we highly recommend trying the German Short row method.
Once the short rows are complete, you’ll switch to smaller needles, and work 1” of 1×1 ribbing (that’s k1, p1 around). It is important to bind off very loosely, so that the lower edge of the fabric doesn’t ‘pull in.’ If you can’t manage to control the tension as you bind off, you can use a larger needle or try a different, stretchy bind-off method.
The sweater may seem short at this moment, but wait until you’ve finished the entire sweater and wet-blocked it before you fret and pull out the hem to add more length. The fit of the yoke and the change to the fabric that happens with blocking will have a big impact on the finished length. Wait and see!
Sleeves
Remember those sleeve stitches that you put on hold? Now it’s time to put them back on the needles. Rejoin the working yarn, and pick up and knit stitches at the underarm. Place the BOR marker in the centre of these newly picked-up stitches, and then knit around the held stitches.
One tip for avoiding holes at either end of the underarm: Pick up an extra stitch at each end of the underarm section. For example, if the pattern says to pick up a total of 8 sts for your size, then pick up 10 sts. On the very next round, work a decrease like ssk or k2tog to join the held stitches together with the picked-up underarm stitches. This helps to avoid a hole at the underarms, while maintaining the correct stitch count for the upper arms.
For larger sizes, the sleeve stitches will fit around a 16” long circular needle, so you can knit on the round on a circular for the majority of the sleeve. For smaller sizes you’ll knit in the round using a longer circular and the magic loop method or double pointed needles (DPNs).
The sleeves on this sweater are EASY PEASY. You just knit in the round till you achieve the stated sleeve length. Work a sharp decrease round, and then switch to smaller needles to work a little 1×1 ribbed cuff on smaller needles (and likely using either DPNs or magic loop method at this point). You’ll want to use a loose bind off, just like on the body of the sweater.
The sleeves as designed are ¾ length. However, it’s easy to add in another 4″-6″ of length for long sleeves if you prefer. Note that the yoke is fairly deep, so that will impact how long the sleeves need to be. If you’re adjusting sleeve length, wait to work the ribbed cuffs until you’ve finished the neckline, blocked the sweater, and tried it on – that way you can add or subtract length before finishing the sleeves.
Next step
Just the neckline and finishing to go! The next step in this series is the neckline. Head there now!
Love Note Sweater: Neckline (5/6)
This post is step #5 of the Love Note Tutorial series. Other posts in this series include:
- Yarn choice and sizing: How to choose a fabulous yarn combination and find the right size for you.
- Construction: An overview of the process and how the sweater is constructed.
- Yoke: How to work the provisional cast-on, lace pattern, and raglan increases.
- Body and sleeves: Creating the high-low hem and picking up the sleeves.
- Neckline (this post): How to pick up stitches from the unzipped, provisional cast-on, plus tips for ensuring the perfect fit.
- Finishing: How to finish off your beautiful sweater!
Neckline
The last piece to finish is the neckline. We’ve got a tutorial on how to unpick the provisional cast-on here. Some provisional cast-on methods leave you with one stitch less; if this is the case, take it into account in the coming decrease round.
You might want to add a ‘lifeline’ at this point, in case you decide to rip back and adjust the neckline after the fact. A lifeline is a thin piece of yarn that’s threaded through your live sts but not knit into the work. If you find the neckline is too tight or too loose, you can pull those needles out and rip with ease – the live sts will be held by your lifeline.
Just like the hem, the key to this neckline is a very loose bind off. We like to use a needle 3 sizes bigger than the needle that was used for ribbing.
Next step
Just a block to go, and you’re done! The next step in this series is finishing. Head there now!
