Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Sleeve Labor

(Sorry. You know how I am...)

Though I also thought of "Sleeving is Believing." And "I'll be sleeving you (in all the old familiar places...)" And the ever-popular traveling knitter's song "I'm sleeving on a jet plane."

It's the fever. It's making me light headed. Really.
That's my story.

So, in between naps today, I got some knitting done. (Yeah, sleeves. How'd you guess?)

Whenever I'm knitting sleeves flat, I like to do them at the same time. This way, I know they end up the same length, with all the decreases/increases in the same places. You can see where I've got a safety-pin holding them together about 1/3 of the way up. (There would have been another pin or so, if I could have found another one. Way too much effort today.) By linking the two sleeves, I can keep track of which direction I'm going. The trick is to never ever ever stop at the gap in the middle. If you have to set the knitting down, either stop a few stitches before the gap, or start knitting a few stitches after it; then, when you pick it up again, you don't have to guess where you left off.
The two-at-a-time thing is an especially good solution if you're making mods. By knitting both sleeves (or both fronts, etc) at the same time, you don't have to worry about keeping notes to help you make the second piece to match. (I usually manage to lose the notes...) (Note to self: find better way to keep notes to self organized.) (Um, wait...)
So I'm at the point where I start decreasing for the raglan shaping. That will be tomorrow's project. Then on to the fronts!

5 comments:

Bullwinkle said...

Excellent progress.

But if you knit both sleeves at the same time, the project is less portable. (Which I suppose doesn't matter if you are knitting at home with a fever.) (Unless you have Ned. Then knitting at home, with or without a fever, and two separate pieces and two separate balls of yarn would give you a headache.)

Feel better!

pacalaga said...

You are teh ebil.
Good luck with the sleeves, and by all that's holy, I hope you feel so much better soon that you never do that song title thing again...

Wanderingcatstudio said...

I watched my mom do two at a time sleeves a little while ago and I was totally entranced... it still fascinates me.

Cookie said...

At least, you're enjoying the fever. ;^)

Laurie said...

I never wanted to deal with two balls, but I think that it probably preferable to the kind of notes I make to myself. They are SO clear when I make them. That is the only time they are ever ever clear.