cherry fleur

My alpaca lace sweater is hereby dubbed "cherry fleur", because of its brilliant cherry pink color and the so-called fleur-de-lis eyelet pattern I chose. It's at the stage where the sleeve caps are slowly growing out of the armholes. One of the things I love about knitting is the ability to create complex shapes as you work, without cutting and seaming. This simultaneous armhole-sleeve trick still seems magic to me each time I do it.

And speaking of that, I've added a few personal refinements:
--I like to use a firm cast-on for the shoulder edges rather than an invisible cast on, so that the shoulders don't stretch out of shape.
--For the same reason, if the neck does not have to be very stretchy, I like a firm cast-on there.
--And for those neck cast ons, instead of the wimpy e cast on, if you reach the end of the row and turn the work around so the other side is facing you, you can work a cable cast on. Then reverse the faces again and continue as if nothing happened. I don't know why it took me so long to figure this out--some mental block about switching sides I guess.
--If you want a little extra shaping in the sleeve cap, you can work short rows on the sleeve caps the row after you pick up the sleeve stitches. This makes the sleeve shape closer to a knit-flat sewn-in sleeve.

If none of these suggestions make sense, Barbara Walker's description of the seamless set-in sleeve sweater will put it all in perspective.

Comments

[claudia]

Thanks for the interesting posts on why and why not. Me, I *run* from intellectual stimulation in my knitting/spinning. Amazing how different, yet so the same.