Wednesday, April 27, 2011

tale of two sleeves

I have a confession about sleeves. I don't really like making them. It probably stems from the first ever sweaters I knit (about the 5th and 6th things I ever knit respectively). Both sweaters were the same pattern, same yarn (different colors), done on the same needles and all 4 sleeves came out different lengths!
I have gone so far as to do both sleeves at the same time to get even lengths. Mostly, I find just paying attention to the pattern usually gets me within a few rows. And this was the case in my sleeves for the central park hoodie. Because of the pattern, I was able to determine, that I was within 4 rows.

I suppose I should also say that I don't pay much attention to row gauge. I always figure that the pattern will say--knit until piece measures X inches. I do pay attention to stitch gauge, but I also confess, I don't record before and after blocking measurements.

I suppose that it is no surprise then to note that if you compare a blocked sleeve to an unblocked sleeve you get this:

sleeves
Blocked one is on the right.
Ironically the one on the left is a little longer.
Not so ironically, these are going to be really long on me.

2 comments:

KarenD said...

Looking good so far! I wish I could muster up the motivation to work on a sweater.

Gina said...

I once went to assemble a sweater, only to find I had a back and three sleeves. I would have been a rather odd looking sweater. Where was my mind?