The Knitting Fiend

Having finished the yoke, I’m ready to add stitches for the underarm. The generator says to cast on nine.

I could cast them on using any method I like. But, I want my underarm to look magically seamless. After all, one of the nifty things about knitting sweaters top down in one piece is showing off their seamlessness.

To make it seamless, I used my cheater’s provisional cast on and added 9 stitches. I cast on in blue waste yarn, then knit a row. I slipped the stitches in waste yarn on to the needles between the stitches for the front and back, and just started knitting.

You can see the undersarm stitches cast on waste yarn in the picture to the left. One sweater front is to the right, the picked up stitches are to the left. That’s my finger pressing down the sleeve stitches– which are on a string to hold them in reserve for now. The stitches for the back are on the circular needle, further left, but unfortunately not in the picture.

Next, I’ll just put the tips together, and start knitting back stitches. I’ll add stitches under the other arm, and knit up the other half of the front stitches. When I’ve finished this row, the front and back seams will be on one needle. The sleeves stitches will be off to the side on strings.

When I knit the sleeves, I’ll insert a needle into the peachy-pink yarn, snip the blue waste yarn and pull the waste yarn out. Live stitches on a needle. Easy!

Of course, since picking up stitches from below always results in stitches being shifted 1/2 stitch, I’ll end up picking up the 2 loops from the half stitches on the edges resulting in 10 stitches picked up when I knit the sleeve. So, I’ll knit the two center ones together, to make that 9 increased stitches for the sleeve too. (BTW. Nothing bad happens if you don’t pick up the loops from the half stitches. They won’t unravel. But, you want to end up with the same number of stitches cast on for the sleeve and body joins. So, either pick up 10 or 8 stitches. Then decrease or increase to end up with 9.)

Well, since this is going to be a shorty sweater, I’m almost finished! I told Jim I’m going to get a white sheath to wear underneath this. Or maybe I should knit a halter dress? Don’t know yet.