Hello
I’m knitting a chunky knit sweater for my son and in order to get the sleeve length correct I asked him to measure the sleeve seam from a sweater which fits him well asking him to measure from under the armpit down to the wrist. He did this and told me it was 51cm. The pattern I am knitting however tells me to knit until the work measures 45cm and then the shoulder shaping begins. This is so far short of the measurement my son gave me that I’m in something of a quandary. The pattern I’m knitting is King Cole 2647 and the chest size I’m knitting is 38ins. The actual size will be 117cm (46ins) which is obviously loose fitting. Would it be the heavy drop that accounts for the seeming discrepancy? I look forward to your advice.
Thank you.
Help with sleeves please
I’ve tried to search for the pattern with no luck, do you have a link for it by any chance?
Without seeing the pattern, it sounds like the extra amount could be the ribbing on the cuff, or even the bind off if it tells you to bind off on every other row, you’re still adding length to the sleeve of course. If the sleeve has decreases you’ll need to adjust those for the extra length your son needs.
If the size difference is on the entire width of the body, there’s something not right with the pattern. A 38" is a mens medium, 46" is an XXL
I don’t have a link to the pattern unfortunately, as I purchased it second-hand on Ebay. The pattern measurements are a lot shorter than the measurement given from the underarm to the wrist which will take the ribbing into consideration.
The pattern seems to be oversize with lots of positive ease. The difference may be in the positive ease which is taking the wider chest into account in measuring the sleeve length.
You might check with you son on whether the sweater he used for his sleeve measurement was also oversize on an oversize sweater or a more close fitting one.
I assume this sleeve is being knit cuff to shoulder.
So you know the entire length you need the sleeve to be. So do extra rows on the sleeve and maybe an extra cm or so on the ribbing. Take very detailed notes when you do it, that way you’ll know exactly what to do for the second sleeve.
Work out how many rows is 1cm, example if 3 rows is 1cm and you need to add an extra 2.5cm you’d do an extra 7 - 8 rows. Assuming it’s worked from the top down. If it’s worked from the bottom up then do the same thing. You shouldn’t need to adjust the shoulder if you add the length of the sleeve on the main part of the sleeve (somewhere between the muscle down to the wrist)
Thank you for your reply. Yes the patterns is knitted from the bottom up and the sweater he measured would probably have been a more close fitting one. The tension given for my pattern is 8.5sts and 14 rows to 5cm (2in) and my tension is correct. The instruction is to knit until the work measures 45cm and then the top is given as:
Cast off 6sts at the beginning of the next 2 rows which will leave 69sts.
1st row: Pattern to end. 2nd row pattern to end. 3rd row: K2, K2tog, K to last 4sts, sl1, K1, psso, K2. 4th row: P2, P2tog, P to last 4sts, P2togtbl, P2. Rep these 4 rows 13 times more (13sts). Patt 2 rows. Leave rem 13 sts on a thread.
This is a raglan knit sweater. I’ve measured the back across and it measures 21ins which would give me 42ins overall. Does this now make sense that the sleeve seam measured from the wrist upto the underarm before the top shaping begins would be 45cms please.
If he has a looser fitting sweater it might be good to know the measurement. If not, you might trust the pattern. Sometimes dangerous but the designer should be taking the amount of positive ease into consideration in specifying the sleeve dimensions.
Thank you for your reply. I think I’m going to have to trust the pattern.
Trusting the pattern and process is tricky, especially when the pattern doesn’t always give answers. Trust in your knitting skills too, you got this!
Hello
In this situation when measuring for myself (I like long long sleeves) and my son (needs small size but long body and sleeves) I have learned to take into account the measurement of the arm hole, that is the measurement in the body of the sweater from bottom of the armhole at the underarm bind off, to the shoulder, measurement taken directly up, not on an angle. This measurement is often given on schematics if your pattern has one.
A closer fit sweater needs an underarm much closer to the armpit otherwise your arm gets bound to the side of your body and can’t be raised.
A looser fit with more ease the body and sleeves will have a wider armhole and more length in the armhole, with the underarm being much lower than the armpit which means the extra bulk of fabric is lower and more comfortable, not bunched under the armpit.
Measuring a sweater is a good start but with the disparity you have found I would go back and measure how long the sleeve needs to be from the shoulder to the wrist (shoulders do not move, underarm bind offs can have more ease or less ease) and check this against your pattern.
You can measure the body of the sweater from shoulder to underarm bind off, then measure your son from this point to the wrist. This may give you a measurement closer to the pattern.
Otherwise…I’d go with the longer sleeve but that’s me. I like long sleeves and many male models and celebrities are wearing very long sleeves so some extra wouldn’t be an issue in my opinion. But of course it is personal preference, some people hate loner sleeves. I would add the extra 6cm just working straight another 3cm between wrist and the first increase, and another 3cm after the last increase before the underarm. I wouldn’t change the increases in this instance because the armhole size isn’t changing.
Just my thoughts.
The armscyth(spelling?) Might be larger or small than the one you are trying to make. I ran into this when trying to put sleeves into a favorite sleeveless pattern that I thought fit well. In my case it was only about 4 cm different.
Excellent advice here. I make sleeves 4-5cm longer than every pattern I knit and once having worked out the extra needed taking into account the notes abive re fit and shape of armhole etc I add the extra length in the lower arm area - prior to the armhole. The decision to add to the cuff length (or not) is purely aesthetic - i.e. How will a shorter or longer cuff look on the garment.
Another factor to consider is that the armscye seam falls at different places on different shoulder styles.
So, for example, the sleeve seam on a set-in sleeve style will be longer than the sleeve seam on a drop shoulder style, even if the point both hit at the wrist is the same.
This is a bit hard to explain in words, and I can’t immediately find an article with diagrams to link to. And I am terrible at drawing!
If you can pull out an example of each style from your wardrobe, or have a look while you are in a clothes shop, it will become obvious.
It’s a raglan sleeve and I’ve already taken that into consideration but thanks.