Monthly Archives: August 2013

I thought I’d start this segment of my Bláithín saga with a brief explanation of how I came to realize that I have ridiculous monkey arms. It is a rambly and stupid story, so I have thoughtfully inserted pictures of sleeve progress throughout, because I find having pictures to look at makes my incessant rambling far more tolerable.

When I get a pattern, the first thing I do is read all the abbreviations, pattern notes, and other important bits they stick right there at the beginning. Next, I skim the pattern once or twice, just to familiarize myself a little bit ahead of time. In the case of an item that has sizing options, I measure any parts that need measuring and highlight the corresponding sizes on the sizing chart. Then I go through the pattern highlighting all the number instructions which match the size I’m making.

The last time I made an actual garment with sleeves for me, I was using a much thicker yarn than what the pattern called for, so I altered the numbers quite a bit to compensate. I measured the really important things like bust, waist, and length from underarms to bottom edge, picked my size, and started knitting away. Thanks to the magic of math and lots of meticulous note-taking, the finished sweater was just the fit I was hoping for, except for one thing: the sleeves were too short. Like, waaaaay too short. The now obvious reason this happened was that I had not actually measured my arms. (Duh!) Instead, I just assumed they’d be the same sweater size as the rest of me, and I was so very wrong.

Needless to say, I measured carefully this time, several times in fact, thanks to my previous discovery. In addition to increasing the length, I also went two sizes up for the upper arm circumference since I like to layer and I cannot stand the feeling of too-tight sweater sleeves over bunchy under-layer sleeves. Drives me nuts! Especially because I have an annoying habit of rolling up my sleeves on a long sleeve shirt, but throwing a cardigan on over that. (I don’t know. We all have our quirks I suppose.)

As for the length, I ended up going up four sizes to compensate for my freak arms. So basically, I am using seventeen times more yarn in my sleeves than in the whole rest of the sweater. (Okay, so that part’s a slight exaggeration, but still…)

So there you have it. I freely admit this was the lamest story ever, but there wasn’t too much else I could say about my sleeve and body knitting progress, you know?

As of today, I am only slightly beyond the picture below. There’s one sleeve done, one with only about 2 1/2 inches to go, and I need 5-6 more inches on the body. Knitting time is tight around here as we get the boys ready to go back to school next week, but if all goes well, I’ll have some colorwork to show you next time!

Until then, happy knitting.

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Amber resides in sporadically idyllic Berks County, PA with her husband and three children.

She can most often be found knitting, making soap, sewing, or puttering around in her garden. She should probably leave her house more often.