help working top of sleeves and neck at same time

[alchemyfyr]

Hi. I have been knitting a sweater for myself without a pattern and I wanted to try something different than I've done before. I just did a simple 1x1 rib, knitted in the round up to where I want the armholes to start. Then I knitted both sleeves on DPNs until where the armholes would start.
I wondered if there was a way to connect the sleeves to the body of the sweater and begin knitting it all at once until I reached the point where I need to begin the neck shaping.
I was thinking about putting some stitches from the bottom of the sleeve on waste yarn, as well as the same number where it would connect to the sweater (to later join with the three needle bind off), then just knit and pick up the sleeve stitches and continue around. Do I need to do anything different at the seam where the arm and sweater meet, like knit two together all the way up, or some sort of shaping once it reaches the top of the shoulder? Does anyone know of a free pattern that follows this type of design? Is this even possible or would it not work?
Thanks for any ideas!
Kristy

[suzeeq]

I was thinking about putting some stitches from the bottom of the sleeve on waste yarn, as well as the same number where it would connect to the sweater (to later join with the three needle bind off), then just knit and pick up the sleeve stitches and continue around. Do I need to do anything different at the seam where the arm and sweater meet, like knit two together all the way up, or some sort of shaping once it reaches the top of the shoulder? Does anyone know of a free pattern that follows this type of design? Is this even possible or would it not work?

Oh yes, it works and you can look at this pattern http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall02/PATTtopsecret.html - for ideas.

Yes, it's useful to put the underarm sts, both from the body and the sleeves, on holders, then you can graft them together. You can do raglan shaping, which is k2tog/ssk where the front/sleeve and back/sleeve joins are. That's 4 spots and you do both decs at each point on every other round. In the pattern I linked, it's a yoked top rather than a raglan, and you dec a lot of stitches every couple of inches.

[alchemyfyr]

Thanks for the link. I looked at that pattern and am going to try to use the basic idea for my sweater, but I'll have to try to adjust the decreases based on my gauge and then try to figure out a different neck. I may have to frog it a few times but I'm sure I can figure something out or I'll just undo it and knit the body separate from the sleeves and then seam them in later like I usually do. Thanks for the help!

[suzeeq]

Yeah, figure out what percentage of sts are decreased from the original st number and use the same percentage for yours.