I don't knit but this is super useful for crochet building sweaters too!! These are the videos creators don't go crazy about producing because many creators have no clue as why they are crocheting the way they are.....they just copy other people without knowing the how and why. So, I appreciate this video soooo much!! Thanks for making it! .........oh my!!! The sample mini sweater is fantastic!!
Oh golly! Send me all those tiny sweaters at once! (That little manikin is pretty darn adorbs, too!) Thnx for your tips & tricks-- you have exceptional teaching skills.
I just want to say thank you so much for doing what you do! Yours is my favorite out of all the knitting channels I've seen. Whenever I want to learn about a certain knitting-related topic, I always hope that you've done a video about it - and usually you have. Your videos have been immensely helpful to me so far in my (currently still very brief) knitting journey!
So pleased to see this! I’m investigating ziggurat construction and another design that uses continuous set in sleeves. Your description of how these methods work, including changes of direction due to short rows, makes the process so much clearer. Thank you!
Congratulations on reaching 100k subscribers! Your channel is my favorite for instruction as well as interesting content. I am knitting my first sweater in 40 years and appreciate your guidance.
I'm definitely a fan of set in sleeves, must be my tailoring background. I prefer the closer fit. I do like top down sweaters however for me personally, I'm not crazy about the fit across my broad shoulders. I did make a long sleeve sweater knit sideways, where the sleeves were part of the sweater. I managed to modify it to fit close yet comfortable for me. Thoroughly enjoyed this series and love the 'tiny' sweaters! And huge Congratulations on an amazing milestone!! 100K !!!!
This series truly is a gift that keeps on giving, Roxanne. Thanks for the literature tips - Ann Budd has been on my radar before, and now I've been able to add a new author to my list. Do you think that the copyright owners would ever consider publishing new and updated editions of Barbara Walker's knitting books and treasuries, for those of us who belong to a younger generation in the rest of the world, even though we still grew up without Internet bookstores? It bugged me something chronic when I began to realise that Zimmerman and Walker had their most prolific time just a few years before I got bit by the knitting bug in the early eighties, but again, only just a couple of years before Internet, Web-based knitting resources and international bookstores became A Thing in my life. I feel somewhat the same about Kaffe Fassett's intarsia patterns of the eighties - I love them to the moon and back for their beauty and for the sheer mind-blowing knitting experiences they used to give me, but there's no way I'd ever want to wear the original eighties designs again. One thing I've been experimenting with for my last top-down sweater projects is how to use short rows to improve the fit and construct different kinds of details. Like how to raise the back of the neck of a yoke sweater enough that the front doesn't choke your windpipe, making bust darts and constructing asymmetric or curved hemlines. Shaping shoulders, improving the general fit in all kind of ways. One of these days, I'll need to try out how to use short rows instead of decreases to shape the armholes, just in case it's possible. Somehow, whenever I'm using short rows, it feels as if I'm only scratching the surface, that there's an enormous potential there of unknown unknowns. So in case you'd ever want to make a crossover with your short row video series, extended usage of short rows in sweater pattern construction would be a subject much appreciated. There's probably a book waiting to be written about A Thousand Fun Things To Do With Short Rows...
Top down set-in-sleeves are my absolute favorite to wear. It’s disappointing that there are so few new knitting patterns released with set-in sleeves. Luckily it’s not too difficult to design basic sweaters if I get stuck, I consult Ann Budd or Asa Tricosa. Thanks for all your tutorials. Deb from Florida
One quick note, cuz I think I saw it on a video as well earlier this month, a small editing issue. At 0:22 there is a repeat of your intro for "4th Video". Love this series!!
Yeah, there's not anything I can do about it once it's been uploaded, other than re-editing and re-uploading, so we all just have to live with my mistakes. :-)
Thanks! I have the books that you referenced from Elizabeth Zimmerman and Barbara Walker (who are both amazing!) but was looking for some video to help me synthesize EPS and top-down construction together. Your channel is helping and I appreciate it!
Watching this video specifically for the 3rd time - it's so helpful and informative! I'm currently designing a (plain) bottom up set in sweater for my toddler. When I get to the underarm decreases, how do I know how many stitches to cast off and how many to decrease? I calculate I need to lose 7 st on each side so I was think BO 4 and decrease 3 over the next rows. Is there a wrong answer?
That depends on how the body is knit. There are other videos in this series that talk about other constructions, like drop shoulder, modified drop shoulder, etc., which might be more appropriate for something a bit more oversized, like a coat. There should be a link to the series playlist in the video description.
HI, Roxanne! I’ve used Ann Budd’s Handy series for years as a male knitter who wears his knitwear to work (traditional shaping that lends itself to conservative textures), and have always been fascinated by Barbara Walker’s Set In Sleeve technique. When I try it, I usually end up with a HUGE sleeve cap because I can’t be bothered trying to calculate how many stitches I would need to go around and evenly distribute the stitches. At that point, I may as well knit the sleeves flat and seam them in (Thank you for your series of Seaming Videos). Just as there are ratios of picking up stitches along the diagonal and vertical edges (3 to 4 always works well for me), I was wondering if there may be a ratio of picking these stitches up with the intention of using BW’s short row technique to knit the sleeve cap. I’m going to try a split 3 to 5 ratio on my next experiment (PU1-skip-PU2-skip, repeat) to see if that will reduce the number of stitches I am picking up around and if it will still provide the roundness of the sleeve cap. Since you have mentioned several times in your videos that you like to knit bottom up and then knit the sleeves top down, would you be able to do a Technique Tuesday sometime that demonstrates Barbara Walker’s method, with emphasis of getting it started correctly? I took a class at a yarn event that stated they were teaching this, however, it was a more complicated “improvement” over Barbara Walker’s method, but it ended up with a sleeve cap so shallow, it looked like a Modified Drop Shoulder. If I overlooked where you may have already done this, please point it out. Thank you, Roxanne!
Walker's method has you pick up the number of sts needed for the arm circumference, rather than picking up using the st:row gauge ratio (which is what the 3:4 is close to). The armhole circumference is larger than that, which is why the PU rate isn't great. I often find that I have to PU a st every other row, which makes it a bit gappy. There are a couple of ways to get around this. One is to use the standard PU rate of 3:4, and then work a round where you decrease out the extras before starting your short rows per Walker's method, or you could use Elizabeth Zimmermann's approach, which is to PU using the appropriate st:row gauge ratio, establish how wide you want the top of your sleeve cap to be, and then work your short rows as per the heel turn of a heel flap and gusset sock construction, working a decrease, then a stitch after the decrease, turn, slip that first stitch, then purl across to the other edge of the top of the cap, p2tog, p1, turn, sl 1, and knit across to the st before the slip st, and decrease the sl st and the following st together, k1, turn, sl 1, work to 2 st before the gap, p2tog, p1, turn, etc., until you are down to the st count you need for the sleeve. She explains this method in the Kangaroo Pouch Sweater in the book Knitting Without Tears. There is a relationship between cap depth and sleeve circumference. A narrow sleeve tends to need a longer cap with a narrow horizontal edge at the top, while a large circumference sleeve tends to need a shallower, wider cap.
If you "can't be bothered" to calculate the number of stitches you need for the cap, why would you even be surprised when you don't get good results? It takes just a few minutes to make those calculations, but that would give you better results. Planning is important.
If we use more cast off for under arm what happens? Does sleeve need to be longer? Will under arm feels more loose? I knitted the back and I think my chest is tight and I want to make the front chest wider to balance during seaming. Does it work? Can under arm cast off for back and front be the same or can I make them uneven too?
Hi Rox is there a formular as to how many stitches to Dec in order to fit in the armhole. I gather it is the hardest contractions for a sweaters on U-Tube seem to have mostly Ragland and yoke style a few of drop shoulder . I really dislike drop shoulder very uncomfortable for all the extra fabrics in the under arm☹️
Are you including in this discussion a say set in sleeves in the round? Are you describing a contiguous set in sleeve? Like some of Isabell Kraemer’s patterns that use set in top down sleeve sweaters typically say a modified version of the contiguous set in sleeve by Susie Meyers. Would you say this is an advanced method? Thanks so much.
I'm not sure if by "this discussion" you mean this video series? The first video of the series introduced the five *basic* styles to be covered. There are infinite variations on those styles, quite a few styles that are hybrids, and some styles that don't fit at all into the five basic categories. The first three styles described in this series all have horizontal shoulder seams. I would consider the contiguous method to be more closely related to a yoke sweater with a shaped neck (e.g. some raglans have shaped necks), or a hybrid of yoke and set-in sleeve.
I want to knit a basic 4 piece set in sleeve womans petite sweater not bulky but loose fitting in the body and normal fit in the arms. Where can I find a pattern for same. It would be a 4 piece sweater. Front, back and 2 arms.
I suggest searching the pattern database on Ravelry. You can filter results on all sorts of attributes, including yarn weight, amount of ease, and type of stitch pattern, as well as construction details.
It was cool in the morning when I recorded. (Plus, I wanted to wear one of the set-in sleeve sweaters shown in the video.) Heading up to 82 this afternoon, so the sweater has been shed!
Thank you so much for your videos. All very helpful. I have however a question, when I make a fitting sleeve do I need the same stiches around the finished shapes of the sleeve as the bodypart has ? Hope you understand what I mean. Thank you so much. Silvia from Switzerland
Are you asking if you need to use the same stitch pattern for the sleeves as for the body? The answer to that is no, the stitch patterns for the sleeve and body can be different. Or are you asking if you need the same number sts for the sleeve that are used for the body? Again, the answer is no. You use the amount necessary to fit around that body part, plus a bit of extra fabric for "ease" (so it's not too tight). Or are you asking if, when planning the amount of ease, if *that* should be the same amount for both sleeves and body? For example, if the bust measurement is 36'', but the arm is 12'', would you need to add the same amount of extra fabric (2'' or 4'' or whatever) to both? Again, the answer is no.
@@RoxanneRichardson Thank you so much for your answers. I meant the number of stiches that are used for the body, so you have said no. Thank you very much for your quick reply, very appreciated. Wish you a wonderful weekend. Silvia
Hello, would the fit change if I decide to not do short row sleeve/cap sleeves on a top down design with set in sleeves? Not sure if it would disrupt the cuff or sleeves when worn if I don’t do the shaping.
The shaping is to accommodate the length difference between the top of the shoulder to the cuff and the underarm length to the cuff. So yes, if you leave the sleeve cap out of a set-in sleeve, you will change the fit.
I don't knit but this is super useful for crochet building sweaters too!! These are the videos creators don't go crazy about producing because many creators have no clue as why they are crocheting the way they are.....they just copy other people without knowing the how and why. So, I appreciate this video soooo much!! Thanks for making it! .........oh my!!! The sample mini sweater is fantastic!!
Hi Roxanne! I love and appreciate your tutorials! Thank you so much! ❤❤❤
Oh golly! Send me all those tiny sweaters at once! (That little manikin is pretty darn adorbs, too!) Thnx for your tips & tricks-- you have exceptional teaching skills.
I just want to say thank you so much for doing what you do! Yours is my favorite out of all the knitting channels I've seen. Whenever I want to learn about a certain knitting-related topic, I always hope that you've done a video about it - and usually you have. Your videos have been immensely helpful to me so far in my (currently still very brief) knitting journey!
I really love all of your videos. Immaculate explanations for everything you need to know about knitting❤
So pleased to see this! I’m investigating ziggurat construction and another design that uses continuous set in sleeves. Your description of how these methods work, including changes of direction due to short rows, makes the process so much clearer. Thank you!
Congratulations on reaching 100k subscribers! Your channel is my favorite for instruction as well as interesting content. I am knitting my first sweater in 40 years and appreciate your guidance.
I'm definitely a fan of set in sleeves, must be my tailoring background. I prefer the closer fit. I do like top down sweaters however for me personally, I'm not crazy about the fit across my broad shoulders. I did make a long sleeve sweater knit sideways, where the sleeves were part of the sweater. I managed to modify it to fit close yet comfortable for me. Thoroughly enjoyed this series and love the 'tiny' sweaters! And huge Congratulations on an amazing milestone!! 100K !!!!
This series truly is a gift that keeps on giving, Roxanne. Thanks for the literature tips - Ann Budd has been on my radar before, and now I've been able to add a new author to my list. Do you think that the copyright owners would ever consider publishing new and updated editions of Barbara Walker's knitting books and treasuries, for those of us who belong to a younger generation in the rest of the world, even though we still grew up without Internet bookstores? It bugged me something chronic when I began to realise that Zimmerman and Walker had their most prolific time just a few years before I got bit by the knitting bug in the early eighties, but again, only just a couple of years before Internet, Web-based knitting resources and international bookstores became A Thing in my life. I feel somewhat the same about Kaffe Fassett's intarsia patterns of the eighties - I love them to the moon and back for their beauty and for the sheer mind-blowing knitting experiences they used to give me, but there's no way I'd ever want to wear the original eighties designs again.
One thing I've been experimenting with for my last top-down sweater projects is how to use short rows to improve the fit and construct different kinds of details. Like how to raise the back of the neck of a yoke sweater enough that the front doesn't choke your windpipe, making bust darts and constructing asymmetric or curved hemlines. Shaping shoulders, improving the general fit in all kind of ways. One of these days, I'll need to try out how to use short rows instead of decreases to shape the armholes, just in case it's possible. Somehow, whenever I'm using short rows, it feels as if I'm only scratching the surface, that there's an enormous potential there of unknown unknowns. So in case you'd ever want to make a crossover with your short row video series, extended usage of short rows in sweater pattern construction would be a subject much appreciated. There's probably a book waiting to be written about A Thousand Fun Things To Do With Short Rows...
Your explanations of what different shapes do and are made for are great. Underrated! I hope you get more views!
Top down set-in-sleeves are my absolute favorite to wear. It’s disappointing that there are so few new knitting patterns released with set-in sleeves. Luckily it’s not too difficult to design basic sweaters if I get stuck, I consult Ann Budd or Asa Tricosa. Thanks for all your tutorials. Deb from Florida
Can’t get enough of those little sweaters! 😉
Lots of admirations for your knits. Thanks for sharing.
One quick note, cuz I think I saw it on a video as well earlier this month, a small editing issue. At 0:22 there is a repeat of your intro for "4th Video". Love this series!!
Yeah, there's not anything I can do about it once it's been uploaded, other than re-editing and re-uploading, so we all just have to live with my mistakes. :-)
Thanks! I have the books that you referenced from Elizabeth Zimmerman and Barbara Walker (who are both amazing!) but was looking for some video to help me synthesize EPS and top-down construction together. Your channel is helping and I appreciate it!
As always very useful, I will be happy to learn how to modify patterns to fit me better.
Just noticed you hit 100k subscribers! Congratulations!!
You make amazing videos Thank you. As I make mostly finished object videos (like a journal) I appreciate the work you put it ♥️
Watching this video specifically for the 3rd time - it's so helpful and informative! I'm currently designing a (plain) bottom up set in sweater for my toddler. When I get to the underarm decreases, how do I know how many stitches to cast off and how many to decrease? I calculate I need to lose 7 st on each side so I was think BO 4 and decrease 3 over the next rows.
Is there a wrong answer?
Fabulous tutorial! Thanks very much.
Hallo thanks this series helped me so much. I watch religiously. How do you determine how much to cast off on your sleeve to fit in the armhole
That was really interesting. Thank you. 🇬🇧
Thank you and God bless you❤
Hi Roxanne, thank you for this tutorial what if I'm knitting like a coat sweater how do I knitt the sleeve
That depends on how the body is knit. There are other videos in this series that talk about other constructions, like drop shoulder, modified drop shoulder, etc., which might be more appropriate for something a bit more oversized, like a coat. There should be a link to the series playlist in the video description.
HI, Roxanne! I’ve used Ann Budd’s Handy series for years as a male knitter who wears his knitwear to work (traditional shaping that lends itself to conservative textures), and have always been fascinated by Barbara Walker’s Set In Sleeve technique. When I try it, I usually end up with a HUGE sleeve cap because I can’t be bothered trying to calculate how many stitches I would need to go around and evenly distribute the stitches. At that point, I may as well knit the sleeves flat and seam them in (Thank you for your series of Seaming Videos). Just as there are ratios of picking up stitches along the diagonal and vertical edges (3 to 4 always works well for me), I was wondering if there may be a ratio of picking these stitches up with the intention of using BW’s short row technique to knit the sleeve cap. I’m going to try a split 3 to 5 ratio on my next experiment (PU1-skip-PU2-skip, repeat) to see if that will reduce the number of stitches I am picking up around and if it will still provide the roundness of the sleeve cap. Since you have mentioned several times in your videos that you like to knit bottom up and then knit the sleeves top down, would you be able to do a Technique Tuesday sometime that demonstrates Barbara Walker’s method, with emphasis of getting it started correctly? I took a class at a yarn event that stated they were teaching this, however, it was a more complicated “improvement” over Barbara Walker’s method, but it ended up with a sleeve cap so shallow, it looked like a Modified Drop Shoulder. If I overlooked where you may have already done this, please point it out. Thank you, Roxanne!
Walker's method has you pick up the number of sts needed for the arm circumference, rather than picking up using the st:row gauge ratio (which is what the 3:4 is close to). The armhole circumference is larger than that, which is why the PU rate isn't great. I often find that I have to PU a st every other row, which makes it a bit gappy. There are a couple of ways to get around this. One is to use the standard PU rate of 3:4, and then work a round where you decrease out the extras before starting your short rows per Walker's method, or you could use Elizabeth Zimmermann's approach, which is to PU using the appropriate st:row gauge ratio, establish how wide you want the top of your sleeve cap to be, and then work your short rows as per the heel turn of a heel flap and gusset sock construction, working a decrease, then a stitch after the decrease, turn, slip that first stitch, then purl across to the other edge of the top of the cap, p2tog, p1, turn, sl 1, and knit across to the st before the slip st, and decrease the sl st and the following st together, k1, turn, sl 1, work to 2 st before the gap, p2tog, p1, turn, etc., until you are down to the st count you need for the sleeve. She explains this method in the Kangaroo Pouch Sweater in the book Knitting Without Tears.
There is a relationship between cap depth and sleeve circumference. A narrow sleeve tends to need a longer cap with a narrow horizontal edge at the top, while a large circumference sleeve tends to need a shallower, wider cap.
Excellent ideas! Thank you so much, Roxanne!
If you "can't be bothered" to calculate the number of stitches you need for the cap, why would you even be surprised when you don't get good results? It takes just a few minutes to make those calculations, but that would give you better results. Planning is important.
Do you have anything specific on the short row sleeve shaping?
If we use more cast off for under arm what happens? Does sleeve need to be longer? Will under arm feels more loose?
I knitted the back and I think my chest is tight and I want to make the front chest wider to balance during seaming. Does it work?
Can under arm cast off for back and front be the same or can I make them uneven too?
Hi Rox is there a formular as to how many stitches to Dec in order to fit in the armhole. I gather it is the hardest contractions for a sweaters on U-Tube seem to have mostly Ragland and yoke style a few of drop shoulder . I really dislike drop shoulder very uncomfortable for all the extra fabrics in the under arm☹️
This video explains how set-in sleeves work. ruclips.net/video/q4V5KgEL5eA/видео.html
Are you including in this discussion a say set in sleeves in the round? Are you describing a contiguous set in sleeve? Like some of Isabell Kraemer’s patterns that use set in top down sleeve sweaters typically say a modified version of the contiguous set in sleeve by Susie Meyers. Would you say this is an advanced method? Thanks so much.
I'm not sure if by "this discussion" you mean this video series? The first video of the series introduced the five *basic* styles to be covered. There are infinite variations on those styles, quite a few styles that are hybrids, and some styles that don't fit at all into the five basic categories.
The first three styles described in this series all have horizontal shoulder seams. I would consider the contiguous method to be more closely related to a yoke sweater with a shaped neck (e.g. some raglans have shaped necks), or a hybrid of yoke and set-in sleeve.
I want to knit a basic 4 piece set in sleeve womans petite sweater not bulky but loose fitting in the body and normal fit in the arms. Where can I find a pattern for same. It would be a 4 piece sweater. Front, back and 2 arms.
I suggest searching the pattern database on Ravelry. You can filter results on all sorts of attributes, including yarn weight, amount of ease, and type of stitch pattern, as well as construction details.
Thank you
Must being getting cool up there. You are wearing a sweater. Wish I could. Still in the 80s.
It was cool in the morning when I recorded. (Plus, I wanted to wear one of the set-in sleeve sweaters shown in the video.) Heading up to 82 this afternoon, so the sweater has been shed!
I'll take 82!
Thank you so much for your videos. All very helpful. I have however a question, when I make a fitting sleeve do I need the same stiches around the finished shapes of the sleeve as the bodypart has ? Hope you understand what I mean. Thank you so much. Silvia from Switzerland
Are you asking if you need to use the same stitch pattern for the sleeves as for the body? The answer to that is no, the stitch patterns for the sleeve and body can be different.
Or are you asking if you need the same number sts for the sleeve that are used for the body? Again, the answer is no. You use the amount necessary to fit around that body part, plus a bit of extra fabric for "ease" (so it's not too tight).
Or are you asking if, when planning the amount of ease, if *that* should be the same amount for both sleeves and body? For example, if the bust measurement is 36'', but the arm is 12'', would you need to add the same amount of extra fabric (2'' or 4'' or whatever) to both? Again, the answer is no.
@@RoxanneRichardson Thank you so much for your answers. I meant the number of stiches that are used for the body, so you have said no. Thank you very much for your quick reply, very appreciated. Wish you a wonderful weekend. Silvia
Hello, would the fit change if I decide to not do short row sleeve/cap sleeves on a top down design with set in sleeves? Not sure if it would disrupt the cuff or sleeves when worn if I don’t do the shaping.
The shaping is to accommodate the length difference between the top of the shoulder to the cuff and the underarm length to the cuff. So yes, if you leave the sleeve cap out of a set-in sleeve, you will change the fit.
More tiny sweaters!!!