Sleeves

The lack of much progress on my cardi sleeves and the witty title of today's post should be a hint as to how I'm feeling. By Thursday night last week, I was pretty sure I was coming down with a cold, but by Saturday afternoon, I realized it wasn't a cold - it was pure, viral evil. I think this morning though, that I am going to live, and I hope to have the energy to knit again fairly soon (yes, it was that bad). I've done more than half of the sleeve increases - they're 3/4 length sleeves - so I don't think I've really got that much more to do on them.

There was a question about knitting them both at once the last time I showed them to you so I'll explain. By knitting both sleeves at once on the same needle(s) with two balls of yarn, you (or at least I) have a better chance of having them match. If you are working increases, you'll probably remember to put them on the same row on both sleeves at once easier than if you work the sleeves separately - even if you keep copious notes and use a row counter. I think this has something to do with the fact that we don't knit in a vacuum, real life continues all around us and it's easy to get distracted. By knitting two sleeves at once, if I'm distracted and forget to increase on one row, I can put the increase on the next row (if I don't want to go back) and both sleeves are still perfectly identical. I use this same technique for fronts of cardi's (when they aren't knit in one piece with the back), as well as neck and shoulder shaping. It's so much easier to remember what you're doing if you do it to both sides at once.

Tomorrow, I will show you gauge swatches! Try to control your excitement.