Beyond Shoulder Seams

Earlier this week, I showed you some progress on Colour Block.  But look at her now.  To the waist and beyond.

Once I reached the shoulder width of my certainly,  soon-to-be-famous  Suz-Ann method of beginning a top-down, set-in sleeve sweater, it was time to start the sleeves.

For this, I relied  totally  on Susie M's method of sleeve construction.  With markers,  I set aside 2 stitches - one on each side of my shoulder seam.  From there I started to-ing and fro-ing  back and forth across the sweater.  Each row, that  is both knit rows and purl rows, I increased one stitch on the sleeve side of each marker.  Two increases on each sleeve on each row.

That continued until I had about 1/6 of the sleeve depth complete.  Thankfully, it had occurred to me, before  starting the sleeve-cap shaping,  that 2 increases every row all the way down to  the underarm would give me a very weirdly-shaped sleeve cap.  Reading further about Susie M's method, it seemed the consensus was to stop the every-row increasing at about  1/6 the sleeve depth.  Well, now, I am glad I  peeled those apples before it was time to fill the pie.

Measuring a few of my set-in sleeve sweaters and studying Ann Budd's Handy Book Of Top Down Sweaters, it seemed that a 7 - 7 1/2 inch armhole depth would be good for me.  1/6 of that would be just over an inch.  And that is exactly where I stopped my every-row increases.  From that point downwards, I increased inside the markers  only on the knit rows.  

And by gosh - I think  it is a pretty nice sleeve cap.  

Try it.   Measure across your upper back - shoulder bone to shoulder bone.  Multiply that number by your gauge per inch and cast on that many stitches.  Put enough stitches for the centre-back neck on a piece or scrap yarn. (In my case that was 7 inches worth.  You can copy that if you like.)  

Divide the number of shoulder stitches by 3 and begining at the neck edge, short row  each shoulder three times.  

Pick up the stitches for the front sholders  in the cast-on stitches of the back shoulders. 

Repeat the short row shaping then proceed with the sleeve cap as I've just described.

It's maybe not Friday night knitting - I have heard that some people know how to have a good time on a Friday night - but it isn't as difficult as one might think.

Thanks for reading everyone and have a great weekend.