The Swirl progressed nicely over the weekend, thanks to knitting while watching The Help (that’s a solid 2.5 hours right there) and knitting while on the front porch Sunday afternoon (in the sun! while wearing a T-shirt and a sun hat, not a heavy jacket and earmuffs!). I’m nearly done with welt 58, so that leaves just 7 welts to go. Given that the rows are getting shorter – to the tune of 6 stitches every other row – the knitting is getting faster. At the risk of jinxing things, I’d say I’m on target to complete in time for Stitches South.
At each neck edge, I’m decreasing one stitch every other row, as called for in the pattern. But at the sleeve edges, I’m trying something a little different.
Rather than decrease one stitch at each sleeve edge on every row, I’m keeping all the sleeve stitches “live” by working short rows; later, I’ll graft these stitches to the ones I cast on provisionally when starting the sleeves. This’ll give me a totally bulk-free “seam” along the underside of each sleeve.
A stitch marker on each sleeve separates the stitches still being worked from the ones waiting to be grafted:
right sleeve in progress
You’ll notice that the stitches to the right of the marker – the ones waiting to be grafted – look a little uneven and funky, thanks to my short-row wraps. After completing all the sleeve shaping, I’ll work one more row over all these stitches, hiding the wraps and evening out the stitches, just as for a short-rowed shoulder. That’ll make the grafting easier.
I wish I’d thought to start the sleeves similarly, working one plain row over all the provisionally cast-on stitches before jumping into the short rows. As it is, those cast-on stitches are really funky. Oh, well. With any luck, knitting one plain row will even out their funkiness too.
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