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I love it when I can find helpful tips out there in The Land of Internet, and they’re fairly easy to come by when you subscribe to the right online newsletters.

Every crafter likely has his or her favourites; and one of mine, Knitting Daily, is a short, well-written little blog by editor Kathleen Kubley, whose posts appear in my emailbox every morning like clockwork.

By the by, Knitting Daily is part of the publishing empire known as Interweave Press, which publishes a variety of art and craft magazines, books, TV shows, epatterns and eprojects.  Check out their website; it’s huge, it’s interesting, and it’s jammed with everything anyone could ever want with respect to crafting – in any medium your little heart desires!

Or just jump directly into what grabs you:  Artist Daily, Beading Daily, Cloth Paper Scissors, Crochet Me, Jewelry Making Daily,  Knitting Daily, Quilting Daily, Sew Daily,   Spinning Daily, and last but certainly not least, Weaving Today.  Quite a list, isn’t it?  A little something for everybody.

Yeah, I know – that’s not what the title of this blog says I’m supposed to be talking about.  I do tend to digress.  But don’t you think that little sidestep was worth it?

Okay, so back to the subject at hand:  set-in sleeves, otherwise known as “those *!#%**#!% sleeves I have to sew onto my sweater!”

In case I haven’t made myself clear, I’m not crazy about sewing any part of a sweater.  I knit everything on circular needles these days; and if the pattern allows for it, knitting the entire thing in one piece – or as close to it as I can come – is my preferred way to go.  However, there can be times when a set-in sleeve is the best choice for a sweater, and a few instructions can come in handy.

In a recent Knitting Daily post, Kathleen shared some nifty little how-to’s for setting in sleeves.  I’ve excerpted a bit of it, but I’ve left most of the good stuff out, so please click on any of the links to go directly to the web page for the entire article:

Mattress Stitch and How to Set in Sleeves [by Kathleen Kubley, Editor]

Finishing is a crucial part of knitting a sweater, and most of us have had to learn on our own how to accomplish neat looking, buttonholes, picked-up stitches, and so forth. We can take loads of classes about how to knit, but finishing skills classes are few and far between.

So I thought I’d have a little finishing class here on Knitting Daily! I’m going to talk about setting in sleeves, which is one of the most challenging parts of finishing a sweater, and one that I end up having to redo more than any other.

There is a certain amount of easing involved in setting a sleeve into an armhole, because the sleeve cap is not exactly identical in shape to the armhole, and sometimes the sleeve cap or armhole openings don’t match up.

So what do I do? I ease the sleeve cap into the armhole opening, and at this I have become an expert.

What do I mean by ease? I mean that I use mattress stitch to seam one stitch from the shorter piece to one and a half stitches of the longer piece. I don’t do this for every stitch, though, or else I’d reverse the problem and use up too many stitches on the longer piece; I ease the stitches about every fourth or fifth stitch.

It’s a simple thing to do, too.  Read more….

It really is simple!  Do check out Kathleen’s free blog, because it’s full of handy little tips like this.

Cheers,
Susannah