Picking Up the Sleeve Stitches for Top Down Sweaters

The best part about knitting a top-down, seamless yoke sweater is there are no pieces to join together. Although, the prospect of picking up the sleeve stitches at the underarm may initially feel more intimidating than the thought of joining pieces.

Before You Begin

As you are picking up the underarm stitches, it's important to pay close attention to the corners, at each side of the sleeve, between the held sleeve stitches (from the yoke) and the picked up stitches. It's really easy to get unsightly gaps there. 

Also, since there is naturally going to be a lot of stress on the fabric at those corners when you move your arms around, it's important to keep things neat and secure. Often times knitters will use their yarn tail to sew up any corner gaps. With a little patience and attention to detail, you can pretty much prevent the gaps from appearing.

Materials

• stitch markers (optional)

Thanks to Skacel for providing the CoBaSi by HiKoo yarn and addi Natura Olivewood Circular Needles used in this tutorial. These products are available locally at many yarn shops and online at Makers' Mercantile.

Picking Up Underarm Stitches for Gap-Free Sleeves 

Recommended Pattern

Ready to try this technique in a pattern? The Wallflower Sweater Pattern shown in this lesson has videos to help you learn more about:

• The Importance of Swatching
• Tracking Progress in Complex Knitting Patterns
• Open Bar Increase (a.k.a. Open Make 1 Increase)
• Decrease Slant and Stitch Charts - 3 Helpful Tips
• Smocked, or Tied, Stitches
• Dividing the Body and Casting On Underarm Stitches for Top Down Sweaters
• Picking Up Underarm Stitches for a Gap Free Sleeve
• Suspended Bind Off (Purlwise)

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