Seams for set-sleeves?

I admit it...I'm new at this. What type of seam is best to use on
set-in sleeves? The pattern I got from the site Bart posted doesn't
mention it. Would running stitch be the right one? Or whip stitch
(unlikely...but just asking)? I haven't figured out how to weave UNLESS
the stitches are "going the same way" (like on garment sides). Would
appreciate any input!! TIA!

Emma

How about pick up and knit them on from the shoulder down? No sewing
required

On Tue, 4 May 2004 08:17:09 -0400, wrote:

I admit it...I'm new at this. What type of seam is best to use on
set-in sleeves? The pattern I got from the site Bart posted doesn't
mention it. Would running stitch be the right one? Or whip stitch
(unlikely...but just asking)? I haven't figured out how to weave UNLESS
the stitches are "going the same way" (like on garment sides). Would
appreciate any input!! TIA!

Emma

Hmmm....now why didn't I think of that? Does this idea work
well? I'm about to begin a sweater with a drop shoulder, and would
prefer no seam, so there would be less bulk.

Anyone got any other ideas?

take care, Linda

On Tue, 04 May 2004 12:31:32 GMT, Slinky
wrote:

How about pick up and knit them on from the shoulder down? No sewing
required

On Tue, 4 May 2004 08:17:09 -0400, wrote:

I admit it...I'm new at this. What type of seam is best to use on
set-in sleeves? The pattern I got from the site Bart posted doesn't
mention it. Would running stitch be the right one? Or whip stitch
(unlikely...but just asking)? I haven't figured out how to weave UNLESS
the stitches are "going the same way" (like on garment sides). Would
appreciate any input!! TIA!

Emma

Picked-up-knitted-down sleeves are my preferred sweater-making method.
If you're making a fair-isle pattern or knitting the sweater from the
bottom up remember that you have to work all of your charts FROM THE
TOP DOWN if you want stuff to match.

Have a look at Beth Brown Reinsel's book on bottom-up gansey
construction for some good ideas WRT not having to bind off the
shoulders (ie, make saddle-shoulders or straps), use a gusset instead
of armhole shaping and you don't have to sew a darned thing!

On Tue, 04 May 2004 15:22:51 GMT, Linda D.
wrote:


Hmmm....now why didn't I think of that? Does this idea work
well? I'm about to begin a sweater with a drop shoulder, and would
prefer no seam, so there would be less bulk.

Anyone got any other ideas?

take care, Linda

On Tue, 04 May 2004 12:31:32 GMT, Slinky
wrote:

How about pick up and knit them on from the shoulder down? No sewing
required

On Tue, 4 May 2004 08:17:09 -0400, wrote:

I admit it...I'm new at this. What type of seam is best to use on
set-in sleeves? The pattern I got from the site Bart posted doesn't
mention it. Would running stitch be the right one? Or whip stitch
(unlikely...but just asking)? I haven't figured out how to weave UNLESS
the stitches are "going the same way" (like on garment sides). Would
appreciate any input!! TIA!

Emma

| On Tue, 4 May 2004 08:17:09 -0400, wrote:

I admit it...I'm new at this. What type of seam is best to use on
set-in sleeves? The pattern I got from the site Bart posted doesn't
mention it. Would running stitch be the right one? Or whip stitch
(unlikely...but just asking)? I haven't figured out how to weave UNLESS
the stitches are "going the same way" (like on garment sides). Would
appreciate any input!! TIA!

Emma

I use mattress for the straight seam, then set a tube into a hole, right
sides together, using a crochet hook to chain stitch in matching yarn.

Helen "Halla" Fleischer, Fantasy & Fiber Artist
http://home.covad.net/~drgandalf/halla/
Balticon Art Program Coordinator http://www.balticon.org

Ah, but then you still need to do short rows to shape the sleeve cap since
it's a set in. I've done it that way, but I tend to prefer to knit the
sleeve flat, from the cuff up, when it's a set-in. Quite possibly it's
because I more often knit set in sleeve sweaters on my knitting machine
than by hand.

| On Tue, 04 May 2004 12:31:32 GMT, Slinky wrote:

How about pick up and knit them on from the shoulder down? No sewing
required

On Tue, 4 May 2004 08:17:09 -0400, wrote:

I admit it...I'm new at this. What type of seam is best to use on
set-in sleeves? The pattern I got from the site Bart posted doesn't
mention it. Would running stitch be the right one? Or whip stitch
(unlikely...but just asking)? I haven't figured out how to weave UNLESS
the stitches are "going the same way" (like on garment sides). Would
appreciate any input!! TIA!

Emma

Helen "Halla" Fleischer, Fantasy & Fiber Artist
http://home.covad.net/~drgandalf/halla/
Balticon Art Program Coordinator http://www.balticon.org

I don't know what is "best" - I have always used a stitch that I don't
know the name of; pin the pieces together (inside out) and using a
tapestry needle and your original yarn, "weave" together by matching
stitches (and skipping where necessary). It looks like this:

O -O -O
/ /| /
O -O

That is, you go through the first and second stitches on one side,
then across and through the first and second stitches on the other
side, the across and through the 2nd and 3rd, etc. Just weave in the
ends when finished. I've tried several others, but I'm happiest with
this - it's both quick and easy. My diagram isn't quite good enough,
but you end up with your connecting yarn looking like overlapping
rickrack, or a sea serpent whose humps overlap. When I've joined with
a crochet hook and simple loops, I always have a ridge on one side.

Cheers,
Laura

On Tue, 4 May 2004 08:17:09 -0400, wrote:

I admit it...I'm new at this. What type of seam is best to use on
set-in sleeves? The pattern I got from the site Bart posted doesn't
mention it. Would running stitch be the right one? Or whip stitch
(unlikely...but just asking)? I haven't figured out how to weave UNLESS
the stitches are "going the same way" (like on garment sides). Would
appreciate any input!! TIA!

Emma

In article ,
wrote:
I admit it...I'm new at this. What type of seam is best to use on
set-in sleeves? The pattern I got from the site Bart posted doesn't
mention it. Would running stitch be the right one? Or whip stitch
(unlikely...but just asking)? I haven't figured out how to weave UNLESS
the stitches are "going the same way" (like on garment sides). Would
appreciate any input!! TIA!

I just use running stitch.

On the other hand, a friend in college used to sew hers together on the
sewing machine, because she said she once ran out of yarn and had to do
that, and the machine-sewn seam outlasted the hand-sewn one by a factor
of years.

But none of my sweaters have had the sleeves fall off yet, either.

=Tamar

Excellent ideas there! I think Laura's system sounds quite good...it's
a great deal like the "weaving" I do on the side seams, I think. I'm a
bit nervous about picking up and knitting down...as this will be my
first set in sleeve, and I'm using the pattern from Bart's calculator...

Thanks for the help!

Emma

This sounds like something I'll save and try one day for side-edge to
side-edge seams. Thanks. I do still get a small ridge with mattress stitch,
though it's invisible from the right side.

However a set-in sleeve is a complex join. The hole is mostly side edge,
apart from a short bind-off area at the bottom, and the sleeve cap is
nearly always all bind-off edge. That is, if you're doing short row
shaping. If you shape with decreases you may have a short section of side
edge as well. Both have curves to cope with. In addition, you aren't
usually joining stitches on a 1/1 match for the whole circumference.
Properly set for a good fit, the center top of the sleeve cap is not
matched to the shoulder seam. There is as much as an inch of displacement.
It's also matched with more ease in some places, less in others, even
though knits have a lot of built-in ease. I do a lot of pinning, usually
with those pink plastic roller pins, before I sew a set-in sleeve in place,
tube into hole, as I was taught in a pattern drafting and fitting course
for machine knitters. For me, the chain stitch method taught in that class
is quick and tidy and I haven't popped one yet.

| On Tue, 04 May 2004 15:18:35 -0500, Laura wrote:

I don't know what is "best" - I have always used a stitch that I don't
know the name of; pin the pieces together (inside out) and using a
tapestry needle and your original yarn, "weave" together by matching
stitches (and skipping where necessary). It looks like this:

O -O -O
/ /| /
O -O

That is, you go through the first and second stitches on one side,
then across and through the first and second stitches on the other
side, the across and through the 2nd and 3rd, etc. Just weave in the
ends when finished. I've tried several others, but I'm happiest with
this - it's both quick and easy. My diagram isn't quite good enough,
but you end up with your connecting yarn looking like overlapping
rickrack, or a sea serpent whose humps overlap. When I've joined with
a crochet hook and simple loops, I always have a ridge on one side.

Cheers,
Laura

On Tue, 4 May 2004 08:17:09 -0400, wrote:

I admit it...I'm new at this. What type of seam is best to use on
set-in sleeves? The pattern I got from the site Bart posted doesn't
mention it. Would running stitch be the right one? Or whip stitch
(unlikely...but just asking)? I haven't figured out how to weave UNLESS
the stitches are "going the same way" (like on garment sides). Would
appreciate any input!! TIA!

Emma

Helen "Halla" Fleischer, Fantasy & Fiber Artist
http://home.covad.net/~drgandalf/halla/
Balticon Art Program Coordinator http://www.balticon.org