Every once in awhile, it’s good to have a reality check. Here at Chez Chic, that usually involves a trip by the knitting up on a mannequin.

But today, I just gathered up all the stuff lurking hither and yon in the house and found (no surprise here) all of them had one thing in common: a lack of sleeves!

Every WIP I currently have on the needles is at the sleeve knitting stage. And oddly enough, each one has a different sleeve making techinque going on!

From front to back:

Sweater #2: This lovely glazed yellow sleeve is a bottom-up, in-the-round edition that is a mere one pattern repeat from the start of Sleeve #2!

Next, Sweater #3 (light taupe alpaca/wool): a grand experiment in short-row neckline shaping on a top-down sweater, that is on hold, just like the stitches for its sleeve, resting on some scrap yarn.

I’m betting once the weather gets cooler, this one gets picked up for some more action. The jury is out if it will ever be a release because the technique is just different enough to what I’ll diplomatically characterize as a “rock the boat” type of move. I’ve found that knitters sometimes resist change although there is no sweeter music to my ears as a designer than someone writing: “just trust the pattern; just do what it says”. Yes.

This would be a grand play in just-do-as-it-says and maybe a coin toss will be the decision making tool I turn to because I LOVE THIS NECKLINE. Maybe it should be out in the wild.

In the far rear, Sweater #4 is what was going to be Sweater #2 in my grand Set-in Sleeve Experiment. However, since sweater #1 taught me all about the correct proportions for this style of armhole/sleeve cap, I’ve realized it would be an exercise in futility to make it work SO this little Hessian colored cardi (some yummy deep-stashed CashCotton DK) is being treated to an old school outing. That is: knit flat; seamed, curved cap, sewn in.

And, out of all of these, it will probably, imho, look and fit the best because it will have something the others do not: ease. In traditional sleeve making (ie. tailoring) of fabric clothing, you see a slight amount of extra fabric in there that is eased into place. It is subtle and not excessive. Instead it allows the sleeve to really mimic the shape of the upper arm and shoulder area of the body.

When I was apprenticing with an Italian tailor in San Francisco in my college days, I learned to design and make men’s suits from scratch. There you see all sorts of tricks and acrobatics to make a suit coat make a man look like a million. The shoulder area juts out over the round part of the top of an arm; it is padded from underneath, in the best suits in layers and different types of padding and interfacing. I get all misty-eyed watching BBC America and seeing the UK pols in their peacockery best – OH – those lovely lovely jackets!

But that takes us back to Sweater #1, where it is ultimately going to be proved, a Sleeve doesn’t always HAVE to behave that way. Knitting, by its very functionality and “give” allows for a very forgiving and flexible fabric.

Where truly form follows function.

This morning, I picked up all the stitches around the armhole for Sleeve #2 and am ready to rock out with my mad top-down set-in sleeve cap-making skillz. During the sleeve-play of #1, we tried a technique to do a virtually gap-less short row turn, and am looking forward to practicing it some more!

We’re so sussed about this sweater, we’ve already woven in almost every end we could find to get it on!

Monday Morning Mirth

I was drinking my Sunday cuppa with the NYTimes Magazine perusing fall trends in the fashion section when it hit me: zombies everywhere!

This video (Women Pose Awkwardly) has been making the rounds but

I found this, form a UK fashion event:

Guys in flannel shirts; girls in whatthe?

Kicking off a weekend of more knitting fun: finished sleeves! Party!

My vintage-inspired experiment continues…

We started two sweaters at the same time – one in this lovely glazed grey color yarn and the other, in a heathery rich turquoise. The goal was to make a basic sweater that was truly figure-proportioned throughout.

Think 1960’s Sweater Girls with that saucy posture (minus the Bullet Bra).

But the journey to the happiness that is finished design is a highway jammed with lots of starts and stops.

You knit, then you rip. Knit, rip. Knit Rip. No shame; no blame. You automatically understand it’s like removing that bandaid off your arm in one fell swoop and you move along.

In this case though, when I finished the first sleeve of the grey model, I realized it Could Be Better.

So I knit the second sleeve making the mods that would make it not just acceptable but, I hoped, exceptional. I have to confess, no other project has bugged me this much in the making in quite some time. Inherent Sleeve Knitting Inertia smacked me in the head everytime I glanced at the first sleeve, which was hard not to do since this is a top-downer. It taunted me – and by all rights, I should’ve just ripped it out and left it back at the cap point and moved along. But it became my inspiration to get the other one off the needles! So I left it.

Then I reknit it! Take that, you little mocker! Seventy-five rows in one night, in fact, last night, to Finish It.

If you click on the right picture, you can see two matching, proportioned sleeves, no longer mocking, but ready for their closeup.

But not quite yet. Other buggaboo: the Buttonband/Neckband which I also improved on the little turquoise model. So it’s back to the drawing board, heh, back on the needles

ONE More Time…