Quick Baby Sweater Help!

#1

I’m working on Lorraine Major’s Quick Baby Sweater, and was wondering how to keep the holes and loose yarn from forming under the armholes.

After I divide the fronts/sleeves/back, I knit across to the 1st sleeve, cast on 2 stitches, knit the sleeve, cast on 2 more stitches, then work the sleeve working in the 4 cast on stitches.

I then knit across the back and work the 2nd sleeve the same way, then knit across the other front.

After this, I work the body. No matter how careful I am, there are loose stitches and holes under each armhole. How do I avoid this?

#2

You have to sew them up. The cast on stitches are not attached to both parts of the sweater, so when you’re done, just stitch them closed. You can snug up any loose stitches then, as well, by pulling them from the back a bit.

#3

You fix them when you do the finishing up. You have to seam the sleeves in someway, and use a new yarn end when you continue on the back sts so take those tails to close up the gaps.

A little better way to knit this sweater is to work on the body sts only first, then go back to the sleeves. Work across the front sts, put the sleeves on holders, CO 4 sts to the R needle (switch it to the L hand if you want to use a knit CO) then work the back sts, put the 2nd sleeve on a holder, CO 4 and finish the rows. Then just work on the body stitches until done. When you go back to the sleeves, pick up sts in the 4 that were CO, plus one before and one after them, then dec the extras on the first row. You can work the sleeves in the round too with ML or dpns to avoid seams altogether. If there’s stitch gaps at the underarm, use the tail yarn from the sleeve sts to close them.