There were a couple of questions in the comments asking why I am attaching the sleeves for my gansey via a three-needle bind-off rather than picking up the stitches and knitting the sleeves down from the body.
Yes, I could have picked up stitches along the edge of the body and knit the sleeve down from the top, reversing all the shaping to make the sleeve narrow as I knit towards the cuff. I have successfully done that many times, but it does have its drawbacks.
First of all I would have the weight and warmth of the entire sweater resting in my lap while I knit the sleeves. This is a deal-breaker for me.
Second, the direction of the knitting is reversed. For my simple diamond pattern this is not a huge deal, but if the sleeve is patterned with something other than straight stockinette or garter stitch, you will need to figure out how to knit the pattern upside-down. Depending on the complexity of the pattern, this may or may not work.
There was another comment asking what ratio I used to pick up my stitches. It all depends.
My completed sleeve was 20″ across the top, so I measured 10″ down the front and 10″ down the back of the body of the sweater and placed markers at those points.
After I finished my sleeve increases, I had a total of 101 stitches. That means I needed to pick up 50 stitches up the front, 1 stitch at the shoulder seam, and 50 stitches down the back. So on the body I placed a marker halfway between the bottom marker and the shoulder seam, and then another marker midway in each of those sections so that I had 4 even sections in which I needed to pick up stitches on both the front and back.
Starting at the bottom marker, I picked up 12 stitches in the first section, then 1 stitch right at the next marker, then 12 stitches in the next 2 sections, then 1 stitch right at the next marker, then 12 stitches in the next section — which takes you up to the shoulder seam. That’s 50 stitches for the first half of the sleeve. Then I picked up my 1 stitch right at the shoulder seam, and picked up the remaining 50 stitches in the same manner as the first 50 stitches.
Here’s my sleeve:
And here’s the sleeve joined to the body:
But this photo is the most accurate representation of the color:
Hard to take photos after work in the winter when it’s dark!
To change the subject . . .
See this little angel?
Hard to believe that someone who looks so sweet and innocent would wake her Momma up 7 or 8 times during the night for no good reason, huh?
