One of the disadvantages of knitting a pieced sweater is all the finishing that’s involved, and one of the most unpleasant duties when it comes to finishing a sweater is sewing in the sleeves.
One of the things that often causes problems when it comes to setting in sleeves is the stairstep nature of many sleeve designs. That shaping is there, as Gwen from 2 Sides 2 Points tells us, so that the shoulder seam will form a straight line from the neck along the shoulder.
This is usually accomplished by making a stairstep bind off, which looks in the pattern like “BO x stitches at the beginning of next Y rows.” It’s easy to write a pattern that way, and it’s easy for the knitter to execute, but it’s not the best when it comes to seaming.
As is so often the case in knitting, the answer is short rows. Check out the article linked above for more on why short row shoulders are so great and how to convert a pattern written for stairstep shoulders into a short row shoulder.
It’s a really clever idea that will make seaming that much easier. (And if you’ve never worked short rows before, check out my tutorial at About.)
Have you ever done a short row shoulder? I’d love to hear about it!
[Photo via 2 Sides 2 Points.]
I always do German short row shaping on my shoulders, but I don’t bind them off and sew them together. I hold the stitches until the corresponding shoulder is finished, then I bind off both shoulders together using the three needke bind off method. It makes a very flat seam with a little, but not too much, stretch.