Schleppy Sweater: Sick of Sleeves

"Are you making gauntlets?" Hubby asked.

No, it's a sweater. These are the sleeves.

"But they cover your hands."

Yes, and if I'm not cold I can fold them back.

"That's neat," he said. "Did you think of that yourself?"

And I had to admit that I saw someone mention the idea on Ravelry.

At which point he lost interest and went back to his video game.

Faster, not better
Pam and Margaret were much more interested when I brought it into Westport Yarns today.

I explained how the first sleeve had felt too tight when I increased every 9th row (right? I worked 8 even then increased on the next row) so on the next sleeve I increased every 4th row (worked 3 even, increased on the following row).

But all the increases all ended up taking place before my elbow. Which was awfully fast. Really, I need a happy medium.

I was trying it on last night and noticed it was bulging strangely near my elbow. I figured it was a combination of the increases and the ribbing colliding. I poked at it and tried to smooth it out.

The part of me that was tired of knitting sleeves said that was just the way it was going to be and I'd have to deal with it.

The part of me that likes things done right said that was the most ridiculous thing it had hear considering I was designing this sweater from scratch. The fussy part pointed out that the bulge would always annoy me, especially since it was in my power to fix it.

Fortunately, it was time for bed by then so I didn't have to worry about it any more.

(Random picture of Samson! Tired from a game of fetch.)

Well, when I put both sleeves on Margaret immediately asked what I was going to be wearing under the sweater. I said nothing. She said the left sleeve was too big then.

Pam said the left sleeve really was schleppy while the rest of the sweater wasn't.

In the mean time, the right sleeve has suddenly started fitting better. I guess all the times I've pulled it on and off trying it out have stretched it out and given it a chance to relax.

So, basically, I'm going to stick with my original increases.

As Pam pointed out, I'm not loosing anything since I was intending to rework a sleeve anyway. It's just a different sleeve.

Ribbing Under Attack
They both said the short/15 row ribbing at the elbow was better than the tall/30 row version.

I have to agree with them. I was already starting to suspect that. It ended up being much more, um, more than I had anticipated.

(Random picture of Baru! Who wouldn't sit still so he's blurry.)

However, they also both turned their noses up at it. Didn't like it at all. They said elbows aren't really an area that needs to be highlighted. (Even though I missed the elbow.) And they didn't really "get it" as a design element. Although they were down with the idea of it on the body for waist shaping.

Despite their protests I still like the ribbing. And it's my sweater. So I've chosen to ignore that little piece of advice. ha!

Of course this means I won't be going back and extending the ribbing on the body. The whole point of the ribbing on the sleeves is to match the body.