Seamless circular sweater - joining body and arms

I'm knitting a circular seamless sweater following Elizabeth Zimmerman's technique. I knit the sleeves from the wrist up, then knit the body from the bottom up. Here's the technique I used to join the body and sleeves.



According to Knitting Without Tears, you take 8% of the body stitches and put them on threads for the armpits, making sure there are an equal number of stitches between the threads for the front and back of the sweater. In my case, I had 144 body stitches, so I took 12 stitches at each side where the underarms go and put them on threads. Then I took 12 stitches from each sleeve and put them on threads.


The stitches on threads will be grafted together later with kitchener stitch. Meanwhile, I took the remaining body and sleeve stitches and combined them all onto one long circular needle. Next I'll knit around in a circle for about 2", then start shaping the shoulders (I'll post that when I get there).


I like this sweater construction...it makes sense and eliminates bulky underarm seams.

How to knit continental

I found this video on YouTube and it helped my technique a lot! This video shows how to do different sorts of stitches in the continental style, and shows how that way of knitting is more efficient than the "english" method. Take a look!

Two sleeves on two circular needles

I'm working my first sweater to be knit entirely in the round (I really hate sewing the seams!). Following Elizabeth Zimmerman's technique, my plan is to knit the sleeves from the wrists up, knit the body from the waist up, join the live armpit stitches with the body stitches and decrease for the shoulders. I'm planning a V-neck and not entirely sure yet how the V will come into play...I guess I'll have to knit back and forth when I get there but at least there won't be any seams to deal with.

So knitting two sleeves on two circulars is interesting...I know I won't have to make a second sleeve when I'm done, but the two seem to go so slowly together! With the two balls of yarn and trying not to get everything all tangled up it's definitely less portable than one sleeve would be, so it will probably end up taking me longer than doing each sleeve separately. I'm still keeping an open mind about this technique...

Here's the tutorial I followed for setting up the sleeves. I set it up with one long circular as suggested, but found it awkward to keep pulling the extra wire through so after a few rows switched to two circulars which I find easier.

My first sweater - Done!

It took me about a month, but I finished my first sweater. I followed a pattern from "Runway Knits" by Berta Karapetyan (called "Soldier's Sweater"), but I converted the pattern for knitting in the round and made lots of adjustments for my own unique measurements. Before blocking I wasn't too sure about the fit (the armpits seemed too snug and it hung a little strangely) but after I'd blocked it it fit like a dream! It's completely new to me to have a sweater that actually has sleeves long enough for my arms, and the yarn is super soft and warm.

One thing I learned while knitting is that I don't do well picking up stitches for the sleeves and knitting down...I tried twice and it always looked weird so finally I knit the sleeves in the round from the wrist up and then just sewed them on at the seams.

Hats, hats, hats

Here's my family wearing their Christmas present hats that I knit. The yarn is various colors of Knit Picks' Wool of the Andes.

A bunch of amigurumi friends

Here are some amigurumi animals I made as christmas gifts for my yoga instructor friends. They can be hung anywhere...I like to hang mine from my rearview mirror to keep me company when I drive.

Welcome to the knitting yogi blog

I'll be posting my knitting projects, links, and thoughts here. This first post is really just a test as I set things up. If you stumbled upon this blog, please check back soon!