Hitting the Books

Okay, where was I?

Ah yes.  Sweater.  I did the beginning of a sleeve on Monday evening.  It seemed to take forever and it just never seemed to move forward.  The farther down it got, the less please I was.  

I stopped and had a good look at it.  It was wrong.  The knitting, particularly on the first inch, was so tight!  I hate it when stitches look like they are crammed in a corner and are all silently screaming, 'Release me, I can't breathe'.  

I pushed it back and was thoroughly disgusted with myself and my work and I had a little time out.  I came back to it late yesterday evening.  I debated what to do.  I couldn't put my finger on what was wrong other than gauge but it just looked like something else was wrong too. It was all ruffly and looked odd fitting. Because so little knitting, only 2 inches or so, had been done, the easy choice was to rip it all back. No problem.  Done.

I still had an unsettling feeling like I was missing something.  It is a long time since I did a top down sleeve this way.  I've done many of the simultaneous ones, but I think I'd have to go back to my interpretation of Holly Yeoh's  Jaimie sweater

 to find sleeves knit the non-simultaneous way.  Looking through the cavalcade of sweaters, this appears to be the only one I knit this way.

It seemed it was time to hit the books.  I had to dig for a while because the book case is tremendously crowded.  So many good things, and some of them, if less read, get sort of pushed to the back or tucked tightly between others.  Barbara Walker's Knitting From the Top Down, the masterwork of all KFTD books.  If there was a first before hers, I don't know about it.  All the others since, begin with her techniques as base.  This one is still the class of the field.  

Hitting the books was invaluable.  I knit almost all of the sleeve cap last night and met the underarm stitches this morning.  No I did not knit all night.  I went to bed.  Had a good sleep.  Got up, had a shower, then knit! ;)

I am pleased. It's not perfect, but it is so much better than the first go round.   

 It would be so nice if I had enough yarn to do long sleeves on this sweater.  As you can see, I decided to to the sleeves in stockinette.  That way, if I do have extra yarn after I get the length I want, I can pick it up and add to them without any fuss.  

It's coming along nicely.  I won't win any speed awards with this one, but it is only January 9th.  I'm making good progress.  

One foot in front of the other, skein upon skein, with a little help from the masters.


UPDATE:

Since Yahoo mail doesn't seem to be working right now, Yes Brenda, more or less to the letter.  I don't do the 1/3rd thing at the top of the sleeves.  I find that at this weight of yarn, that is too broad a top.  I do about the same number of stitches across the top of the sleeve as I do across the underarm.  Its usually a large number since my girth has to increase directly under the arm.  But otherwise I do follow her technique.  I don't think I worked with it enough yet to really gauge how I like it.  In general I remain a simultaneous sleeve knitter.