Am I setting myself up for total disaster or can I fudge this together in a reasonable way?
I made a sweater body with shaping for modified drop sleeve, a few sts bound off underarm then worked straight up to shoulder.
I made the sleeves but don’t like the fit once they are sewn in. I feel like the sleeves need a shaped cap. If I knit up a shaped sleeve cap will it seam into the hole despite the hole not being fully shaped?
Not total disaster but maybe a little problem. It may be that the shaped cap with the drop sleeve will look as though the sweater doesn’t fit through the shoulders, just too wide at the shoulder. Or it may be that I don’t understand exactly how the sleeve cap will fit into the armhole opening.
Yes, I see what you mean. The armhole is past the shoulder so you’re right it may look like a bad fit. But it already looks a bad fit ha ha!
Hmmm… wondering if the shoulder may sit up a little higher with the different shaped cap, not pulling it down the shoulder with the weight of the sleeve.
With the modified drop sleeve i feel like the shoulder is not wide enough to really drop properly and it’s kind of pulling at the neck too.
Do steeked armholes always have a drop sleeve?? Or can they have a set in sleeve cap?
As usual, my lack of knowledge gets me stuck.
I was following this pattern with a couple of modifications (colour work, neck shape) but on me the shoulder doesn’t drop as far as in the model pic. The body fits me fine.
Steeked armholes that I’ve seen or worked were straight slits in the body tube. No shaping to the armhole to fit a sleeve cap.
Classic sweater pattern which will be the perfect canvas for colorwork.
Thanks salmonmac.
I think I’ll give the sleeve cap a go and see how it fits sewn in.
I think you can do a sort of half sleeve cap? Not as deep a curve as for a set-in sleeve. More like the image on the left than the one on the right.
It should be very close to the same measurement as the armhole, or maybe slightly larger. Any excess should be eased across the top 2/3 of the sleeve.
Thanks, it’s good of you to go to the trouble of finding this iamge for me. I appreciate it.
OK. I know how to work out both of those shapes but i can’t get my head around why a shorter cap or half sleeve cap would be better. I can’t figure out the benefit or how it changes the fit.
Are you able to expand?
One thing i have figured out… same as other times i end up with problems and questions. It’s my wide shoulders!
Now I’ve mentioned this before because my shoulders are too wide for patterns but then I spent ages watching a video on how to measure properly and thought I’d got my shoulder width wrong… and now i realise I have not got it wrong, it is actually wide.
Sigh.
I measured a sweater (shop bought, had it many years) which fits my shoulders perfectly, it is a set in sleeve.
It is very loose in my body, comfortable, big and the sleeve seam sits exactly on my shoulder. When flat the shoulder width is 42 cm across. Body 50 cm across. These sizes just don’t seem to exist in knitting patterns for women (anything with a shoulder width this big is much too wide in the body)
This is why the drop shoulder looks weird and fits badly, it’s 45 cm wide so not big enough to really drop.
I am going to try setting in on the edge of the armhole and also try it 1.5 cm in from the armhole edge.
The taller sleeve cap would want to go all the way up to the top of your shoulder. As this garment has a partial drop-sleeve, the flatter cap should fit better, because part of the distance is already covered by the body parts. A full sleeve cap sewn onto the straight edge will most likely bunch up just off the shoulder seam.
If you decide to move the shoulder in a bit, the sleeve cap will want to be correspondingly taller.
As I know you don’t mind knitting and reknitting to get a good fit, you might make the taller sleeve cap and then pin it on in various configurations until you find the one that will work best for you. Then you can see exactly how many rows/stitches you’ll need to get what you want.
Note that by far most of my knowledge of garment construction is based on wovens, not knits. Knits are more flexible and behave a bit differently, but the basic geometry is the same.
Ah, I understand now, thank you, that’s great.
The body just doesn’t cover any of my arm, well, it’s about 1.5 cm which just looks weird. On the model it looks about 5 or 10 cm, I can’t measure it but the shoulder actually drops on the model and doesn’t on me.
I think I need to make the taller shape. I’ve done one today which was maybe 2 rows too high, not too bad in height but it was quite a bit too wide and i did manage to put a couple of markers in it as a guide to redraft it. I might just try sewing it on with the excess sitting inside the body to see what happens.
Thanks for your help.
I’ll admit im pretty tired of reknitting at the moment. I already have one sweater put on hold and now this one is threatening the same.
