Restless Knitter

(**Edited to add 2 more pics of the piece farther along**)

First things first… today is Janice’s birthday. Go over there and wish her a good one!

Way back in June, I said I might show the difference between how the Baby Surprise is written, and how I lengthened the sleeves. Then I forgot about it until Marcy asked me to share how I made the sleeves longer.

This is how the BSJ looks when you start it from the pattern

A lot of people, me included, have a hard time figuring out exactly where this pertains to in the finished piece.

See how the right side is folded up? That’s a sleeve. It’s not quite to the point of the underarm yet, but imagine that it is. The bottom folded part would run along the inside edge of the arm, up to the underarm.

Now in the original, the sleeves don’t necessarily come all the way down to the wrist. It was designed this way on purpose, because babies have a tendency to stick their widdle little hands in their mouths. I wanted something that would be a little snug on the wrist so air doesn’t breeze up the arm. Not that it’s likely to happen, but I don’t like it when it happens to me and if it’s not good enough for me, then it’s not good enough for baby. What I did was cast on 43 stitches (the number of stitches between the first stitch and the first decrease marker, minus 1) in the pink yarn and work k1p1 ribbing for 11 rows. After 11 rows, I increased 1 stitch in each sleeve and worked 7 rows of garter stitch in the body color. I just eyeballed the extra sleeve length so you might do more or less rows. I figured if it’s too long, the sleeves can be turned up. I did both at once, but you could do them one at a time if that’s easier for you. If you do them one at a time, don’t bind off, instead leave the sleeve on a holder while you make the 2nd one. At this point, you have the two pieces on your needles, each ready for the next row. Here are the two sleeve lengths, ready to be joined together in wedded bliss

Knit across one sleeve. Instead of turning, cast on 90 stitches with the working yarn, then knit the next sleeve with the same yarn. Now the 2 sleeves are connected and you’re ready to start following the original pattern.

After around 14 rows into the original pattern, it will look something like this:

Remember how you flip up the bottom edge to form a sleeve? Now it has a little cuff, hooray!

This is around row 20:

** Farther along, laying flat. The needle is at the bottom edge.

**And folded up, matching the top shoulder and sleeve seams

And this is when the knitting is all finished and you are a slacker and still haven’t put the buttons on or woven in the ends. As it still sits today

Now lest you all think I’m brilliant, I admit I didn’t come up with this all on my own. I did a lot of searching to see how other people had lengthened their sleeves and this was my interpretation. If I didn’t explain something well enough, let me know.
Daughter finds out on Friday if it’s a boy or girl, unless the little bugger gets shy during the ultrasound and crosses his/her legs.