Sock it to me baby...

[jenwith4kids]

Has anyone knitted this sweater? It's a Black Purl pattern - a baby sweater knitted with sock yarn. I've been working on it since early summer; I have all the pieces knitted and I've joined the front and back at the shoulder with a three needle bind off (that's a very cool technique! YAY ME!). But now I'm stumped.

I need to "backstitch the sleeves to body, matching the shaping and easing to fit as needed. Weave together the side and sleeve seams".

Never mind "easing to fit as needed"...my sleeves seem so much smaller than the arm holes on the sweater and I'm STUCK! I thought at first that I attached the front and back pieces incorrectly, but the they match exactly so the body looks totally right.

I won't even mention that I can't figure out the backstitch because that's irrelevant if my sleeves are wrong!

The baby is due in less than SIX weeks!! I need to get busy.. I'm so frustrated - - how do I get past this??

[zkimom]

It sounds to me as if you either made a mistake in your sleeve shaping or there could have been a mistake in the pattern directions.

Another possibility is you were getting stitch gauge but not row gauge and so when you followed directions for the sleeve shaping and it was listed in number of rows and not inches, the size of your sleeve cap didn't match up. Your pattern should have a schematic that tells you how long your sleeve cap should be. You may have to adjust the number of rows between decreases in order to get that length.

It looks like you will have to frog your sleeves to the beginning of the cap shaping and try again. Your best bet would be to insert a lifeline into the last row of stitches before you started your shaping and try again.

If you don't know how to insert a lifeline, there's a video about it here. Scroll down to "Fixing Mistakes."

[jenwith4kids]

I was hoping not to have to frog, but that makes sense. I'm still not sure where I went wrong and the more I think about it the more I think my armholes are too big and the sleeve is correct. There is no schematic which is aggravating as well. I think I'll go to my LYS on Monday and seek help!!

[zkimom]

Your pattern looks like a simple drop shoulder cardigan. You could find a pattern for a similar sweater that has a schematic so you can get an idea of what length the armhole should be.

If you are really off in that department you will have to frog the armholes -- if they aren't so bad then it would be easier to make your adjustments to your sleeves.

Just a thought.