Hello again, it’s been a few months and I’ve progressed to an intermediate pattern! I bought a job lot of exactly the right yarn (and even the same colour) but it’s discontinued and I only have just enough to do my size (given the size below states the same number of balls and the size above needs an extra one). Cable ribbing went well but then I discovered there’s no such thing as 3.5mm size needles in the UK!! Thought it wouldn’t matter if I used 3.75mm but not surprisingly the jumper is now coming up bigger than pattern size. As it’s now debatable I’ve got enough cotton yarn to finish (and as ideally I’d like to knit it to be longer) I thought perhaps I could knit 3/4 length sleeves instead of full length, particularly as it’s a lightweight summer sweater. Not sure how to go about this…anyone got any pointers please as to number of cast on stitches, increases etc (my size is the middle one in the brackets). Many thanks
Good going! Progressing to more difficult patterns, even just a pattern by a different designer is a great way to increase your skills.
What is the name and designer of your current pattern?
Decide where on your forearm you would like the sleeve to end. Then use the cable ribbing already knit from the body of the sweater to decide how many sts to cast on for a comfortable fit. You can wrap it around your arm. Use the body of the sweater to do the same for the sleeve above the ribbing or measure around your arm and calculate stitch number from your stitch gauge.
Figure out about where you would then be in the sleeve increases (skip some of the initial increases) and continue with the pattern from there.
That’s very helpful, thanks. The only thing I’m unsure of now is once I’ve chosen the amount of sleeve cast on stitches how do I calculate the number of purl and knit stitches that will be needed before and after the k2, p2 and p2, k2? The pattern is cable trim jumper, knitcraft by hobbycraft using “it’s so fine” cotton yarn…very pretty but not very forgiving with mistakes (unravellings tend to show!)
Your sweater body knitting looks very pretty.
For the rib you want a multiple of 4sts plus 2. That will mean that the RS rows begin and end with p2. For example, if you measure that you need 72sts for the rib at your forearm, round that up to 74sts (a multiple of 4 + 2 or 72 + 2).
Hello
I don’t know if you want to find needles or go ahead with changing your sweater sleeve length but there are definitely 3.5mm needles in the UK
There are 72 different options at woolwarehouse for 3.5mm ranging in price, here’s a link
There is also a wide variety of makes and prices on amazon, the pony are only £2 with free delivery but there are knit pro at around £8 and unbranded etc etc too. All sorts of lengths and materials to choose from.
Amazon also have needle sets which have loads of sizes in for a budget price. I started with those and they lasted very well, my set includes 3.25 and 3.5 both listed in your pattern.
I was obviously looking in the wrong place! I did think it a bit odd (but the needle size charts I looked at also just had a blank for 3.5 mm for UK size). Anyway, nice to know they are available, thanks for the info for future reference. Think I will plough on with the 3.75mm for now as I’ve knitted a lot of st st…hope I don’t end up regretting straying from the pattern
Again, very helpful…many thanks
The reason the 3.5mm doesn’t show on UK sizing charts is because 3.5mm is a metric size and the charts show pre-metric size names. UK and US size names are different and can be confusing if one doesn’t know where a pattern was made. As with so many things in the UK we switch from imperial to metric depending on the thing we are talking about. Vintage patterns likely only have the imperial UK name for needles but modern patterns will more likely have metric. There is no imperial name/number which is equal to 3.5mm so it isn’t on the chart, but metric sizes are common to buy and use.
Hope your sweater works out how you like it and that you manage do finish with the yarn you have.
Ah…mystery solved! Thanks for the explanation, feel a bit silly but at least I’m learning a lot here, very grateful for this site. 
No problem. Don’t feel silly. We have a bit of a strange imperial-metric mix in the UK don’t we? We never fully transitioned to metric but instead live with our garbled confusion.
No need to feel silly …
Remember engineers at NASA crashed a space probe into Mars by sending instructions in imperial instead of metric!
Now that you have asked, you have saved your knitting from “crashing”
Yes, very confusing…still find it hard to imagine metres as opposed to feet and inches!
Well, yes, I should think that was slightly more embarrassing!
Love the colour