We’re delighted to be hosting our very own Rosemont Cardigan Knit-A-Long on the Kelbourne Woolens Blog. The Rosemont Cardigan by Hannah Fettig, features Terra in Nettle, and is a great way to stay warm during the last few months of winter.
Last week we discussed modifications to our Rosemont Cardigan, from adding length to creating waist shaping. Customizing any garment for your specific body type and shape is a great way to personalize your knits. With our body completed, let’s move on to joining our sleeves!
A couple of weeks ago, we divided the sleeves of our Rosemont Cardigan from the body {you can read more about that adventure, here}. Now it’s time to take those set aside stitches and put them back onto the needles to start working on our sleeves. This is what our Rosemont looks like at the moment – or as my friend described it, “your very weird vest”.
Some knitters would immediately think, “so, I place the held stitches onto double pointed needles, join in the round, and then begin knitting, right?” Wrong! Remember those stitches we cast-on for our armpit? We have to pick those up and then we can work in the round for our sleeve. One helpful tip that Hannah and Pam discussed in an episode of Knit.fm was the awkward hole when you pick up those stitches. Hannah suggests that in order to avoid those pesky little holes, you pick up two extra stitches. One on each side of the armhole pick-up, and knit each extra stitch together with its neighbor. I had a nice “ah-ha” moment after listening to that episode regarding those unwanted armhole holes.
We begin by placing our held sleeve stitches back on the needle. Be cautious on this step to make sure you aren’t twisting your stitches.
Now we’ll pick up the extra stitch as well as the armhole stitches and begin working our sleeve!
It’s important not to forget to decrease those two extra stitches we picked up to prevent those pesky underarm holes. After those have been knit together with the underarm stitches, everything should be in order stitch-count-wise.
And that’s it! My sleeve is back on my needles and I’m ready to take this “weird vest” and make it into a cardigan! I will most likely switch from double pointed needles over to a 16″ circular due to personal preference, but with this I’m curious: which do you prefer, double pointed needles or a 16″ circular for sleeves? OR even 12″ or 8″ circulars? Or do you prefer to use the Magic Loop method?
Next week we’ll discuss picking up stitches for our shawl collar and a little introduction to short row shaping. Don’t forget to show us your progress using the #RosemontKAL tag on your social media platforms.* Happy knitting!
-Leah
* Keen observers may have noticed we changed our Instagram “name” to KelbourneWoolens from the FibreCompany. Since we use Instagram for documenting what happens in the office, but also what happens in our “life”, we thought the KelbourneWoolens name was a better fit. Nothing else about the account has changed, though, you’ll still see a funny mix of yarn, knitting, and patterns as well as cats, dogs, kids and our other crafty hobbies such as sewing, needlepoint and cooking!