Knitting sleeves with circular needles

So I have decided to knit the long sleeves of my jumper with circular needles. However, not far in the pattern, I am wondering how I will work the diminution both sides of the sleeves.

My pattern say to work 4cm in rib 1/1.

Then knit in jersey 6 more rows

At row 7 and every 8th other row, increase 8x1 on both sides.

Then every 10 rows, increase 4x1.

So in the end there will be 79 stitches.

At 46cm, I will have to start decreasing on both sides, 1x3 on each side

Then on every row 3x1

and every 2 rows 10x1.

Then I should have 47 stitches left on my needles.

Is this possible to work this on circular needles from the bottom of the sleeve or would I be better off knitting in rows and having a seam? I am not a too experienced knitter…

Thank you! Celine

What is the name of your pattern?
You can certainly knit the sleeves on circulars. Put a marker in at the beginning of round and consider this the inner side of the sleeve (the side facing the body of the sweater). Make your increases on either side of the marker or one or two stitches away from the marker (for example, knit 2sts after the marker, inc, knit to 2sts before the marker, inc, work to marker).
When you get to knitting the sleeve cap, you’ll have to go to working back and forth because of the underarm bind off and it looks like further bind offs at the cap edges.

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Thank you for your explanations, it helps a lot! I took the pattern from Lovewool no.12. It does not seem to have a name as it just says number 42, pullover. I believe the pattern is from Rico design though as the book mention their details. I am enclosing a picture of the magazine showing the jumper I am making for you to see. Thanks again !

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Oh, nice! That’s going to be very pretty.

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It is possible to work in the round on circular needles though it depends on whether the needles are short enough to allow you to join one end to the other. There are circular needles as short as 8” (20 cm approximately).

If these aren’t short enough, you can use double pointed needles (I like Addi FlexiFlip needles) or the magic loop method which uses either one fairly long circular needle or 2 circular needles (there are youtube videos about it).

It is also possible to knit it flat and seam it if you prefer. You will need to add 2 stitches (a selvage) as the seam causes 2 stitches to overlap, making the overall width smaller.

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Thank you for your help! I have started with 20cm Addi circular needles, they are perfect for this. I think it will be easier in the end not having a seam. Thanks again!

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What a pretty selection of designs!

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I have knitted my first sleeve up to the decreases. I am now trying to understand the shoulder decrease and I am not too sure if I understand the pattern correctly.
I currently have 79 stitches on my needles.
My pattern says to decrease on both sides 1x3 stitches, then 3x1 stitch and every second row 10x1 stitch. At the end, I should have a total of 47 stitches left on my needles.
So if I understand correctly, I have to first decrease the 3 stitches on both rows, then work up 6 rows with a 1 stitch decrease and finally on the last 40 rows, I will have my 20 stitches decrease with 1 stitch decrease every second row.
Does it seems correct? Thank you :pray:t2:

Sleeve looks gorgeous!
One way to work it is to bind off 3sts at the beginning of the next 2 rows. Then decrease one stitch every row on each side every row (this will take 3 rows with decreases on front and back rows) , finally one stitch on each side every other row (this will take 20 rows with decreases on front RS rows only).

Unless your pattern says something about only working decreases on RS rows, this is the way I would interpret it. You may be able to check by looking at the total number of rows, your row gauge and the pattern length for the sleeve cap. Also checking the decreases on the armhole on the body of the sweater may help you decide if the decreases are on all rows or only RS rows.

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Thank you so very much for your help! It makes more sense now. I will measure the rows to be sure too but this seems to be the right option. Thank you :blush:

I am still knitting my green jumper. I have knitted the sleeves, the front and back. I am left to knit the collar by knitting around each pieces with circular needles. I am puzzled with this though…

Is it better if all my pieces end up with a right side row or wrong side row? I have counted 25 rows of decreases to the top of each sleeves against 24 rows of decreases on the front and back of the jumper. I think I may have to remove one row from each shoulder so the decreases are the same. Would that be correct?

When working with circular needles, will I need to work with the inside of the jumper facing me? Thank you for your help!

It probably won’t matter if some of the pieces are right side and some wrong side. One row isn’t a big difference and knitting is stretchy and forgiving.
If you want to even it out, that will work. As long as the row you remove isn’t a decrease row.

You should be able to work along the outside of the sweater. That should make the yarn overs and k2tog or whatever decrease you’re using easier. That’s the way most patterns for yokes are written.

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Thank you for your advice! I now started working on the neckline and I am attaching a picture of part of it. I just realized that I knitted one less row after the first holes (3 rows instead of 4). Would you go back to it and start again or do you think it is not going to be too noticeable?
On the positive side, I have the right number of stitches on my needle.
Thank you for your help !

Your sweater looks lovely. The difference in spacing of the eyelet rows isn’t very noticeable but it depends on what you think. If it’s going to bother you, and you’re going to look at the sweater and fix on that one part, then better to change it now. If you can live with the different spacing, then keep on with this beautiful knitting.

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Thank you so very much! I think I will leave it as it is and carry on knitting :blush:

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Very nice!

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I am now left with the sewing, something I find often quite difficult. I am attaching pictures of my first sleeve (front and back). Does it look alright?
Thank you!

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It looks great to me. What seaming method do you plan to use? When I actually seam I get great results with mattress stitch. It’s easy to adjust the tension and if I decide I’ve messed up and need to start over it’s easy to remove.

eta I know you went from in the round to flat knitting (didn’t you?) and I see no obvious change in tension. That’s a good indication you done good!

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Looking good!

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I tried the mattress stitch at first but I had some larger stitches where I casted off at the start of the shoulders and it looked like my work had some holes.
I seamed it on the inside out, with my needle going through the stitches on both sides and over.
I am planning to use the mattress stitch on the sides of the jumper though as the stitches are more even.

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