Nothin' But Sleeves

Since I tweaked and re-sized the body of my Nothin' But a T-shirt, I consequently had to do the same for the sleeves. Today I figured out everything and just got started.

First the pattern has you work a hem in a contrasting color. I calculated how many stitches I would need around the lower edge and began with a provisional cast-on. Then I joined for knitting in the round as I'm going to knit circularly up to the sleeve cap shaping. To make the hem, the pattern has you work 5 rows in stockinette stitch and then a purl row on the right side followed by 5 more rows of stockinette. Still using the contrast color, you knit the next row together with the cast-on row to complete the hem. I plan to knit one extra round in the contrast color both before and after the purl round and then switch to the main color as I knit the next round together with the cast-on. A very small change, but I think it will look better this way.

For the increase section between the hem and the sleeve cap (5 whole rounds!), I actually plan to work the pattern as written -- other then the necessary adjustments for knitting in the round instead of back-and-forth.

As for the rest, I've completely reworked the sleeve cap with the help of the wonderful feature on calculating set-in sleeve shaping in the Winter issue of knitty -- part III of a series on knitted sleeve design by Jenna Wilson (aka the girl from auntie, designer of Rogue). In addition, the hypotenuse calculator found on her website was an indispensable tool for making my way through the very math intensive article. If you're a crazy geek like me, you'll find both resources absolutely fascinating. If not, at least you'll finally have the answer to the question -- "what would I ever use this for?" -- which you probably asked yourself during algebra class.

tags: knitting